Rockman Naruto: Reloaded
by Terra ace
Summary: AU: Every few centuries, the Bijuu run out of control and wreak havoc as part of its "reset" of the world. They were stopped however, but no one knows how Kyuubi, the "unstoppable force of nature" was quelled. This is his jailor's story.
1. A day in the life: Prologue

Rewrite Date: 7/30/08

Rockman Naruto

Revisiting Editor's Note (7/30/2008)

It has been quite some time since I last updated. Too long in fact, at least for me to just revive the story again.

For me, usually these things start out strong, but when I look to the future chapters, I find it that it fizzled out sometime in the seventh or sixth chapter. Continuing it from there will just be pointless and more of a drag plot like some stories.

Seeing this, I decided to rewrite the story anew. With some changes to the storyline, some plotholes will be attempted to fix and some acceptance issues will be addressed. Kind of like a renovation to be exact.

In following, the Renovation will correct some first mistakes:

Battles will be improved upon; no more will the chapters be dialogue and Naruto/Rockman taking half the chapter and will conclude the ending after the battle ends.

Interaction between characters will be improved upon; even I found it two-dimensional when Sakura accepted Naruto just like that. This will be fixed.

The prologues will be abolished; doing that first will just force me to coincide that for the rest of the story. The prologue will still be included, just not as the first chapter…kind of like a flashback

I got a couple of reviews asking if this will be a harem. I don't really write harems, it screws with the implications of the morals I have. I will write some scenes in there with various women in Naruto's life and some will be…awkward sort of. In the end though, only one will stand.

When I first started this story, I imagined everyone would have a power like Naruto, I decided to revise that. We don't need already powerful characters get even more powerful with the help of the crystals, so some won't get some.

I would also like to portray the Shinobi Academy as a more serious institution. Everyone started from the academy aside from the founders and founding civillian population. I also tweaked Iruka's attitude about teaching. He feels like a serious teacher in the classroom, but maintaining his humanity outside the classroom.

The starting will take a more sci-fi…ish theme to keep homage to the Rockman part of the story, but you can guess what that will be near the middle or so.

That will be all really, so just enjoy the new first chapter.

(On a final note, no one seems to know when the timeline is around the Naruto world, so seeing somewhat old technology in the series, I will put the starting timeline around the year 2000, with all Shinobi observed technology in there. No need for assault rifles or sniper rifles replacing good ol' Shinobi death metal!"

Chapter One: Awakening

_Konoha_

_Year 2000_

_Konoha's Civilian Market_

Twelve years have passed since Naruto Uzumaki's birth while in the middle of the most potentially destructive catastrophe was happening to Konoha. Twelve years since their leader of the time, a man known only as Yondaime Hokage took down said catastrophe at the cost of hundreds of Shinobi and ultimately, the Yondaime's life to end it all.

Now, you may be asking: But how was the Catastrophe quelled? Answer lies simply in the boy in front of you.

Naruto Uzumaki was a tool used in the prevention of Konoha's destruction. By having the catastrophe sealed in the boy's body.

Usually, the people as a whole would normally herald the savior of their lives by at least saying thanks and whatnot to said savior, this wasn't the case.

Naruto Uzumaki, aged twelve, was being treated like a powered down version of the catastrophe itself.

Human nature hovers over those it considers less powerful then their own, usually terrorizing or reminding said lower creature who was the predator.

So taking a small human boy and comparing it to the great catastrophe gave them the idea that since he was weaker than them, it was alright to "rule" the boy himself. Something that they did in different examples.

One was to coldly ignore him, others were to belittle him, and some were more physical than mental in ways.

Of course, then came the time the boy had an opportunity to rise against his bastard overlords by enrolling in the one of the overlord's greatest predators than themselves: The Shinobi Academy.

Shinobi were considered to be a class of their own as anyone who thinks they've got it can enroll there, usually by taking a fairly simple obstacle course or a written exam to enter the academy. Often more than not, children are the ones who enroll, although there are programs for adults that offer alternative ways into the Hokage's military service.

Over the years, less and less Shinobi teach the school year round voluntarily and have been replaced by the civilian equivalent of the Shinobi teacher. Something that was disadvantageous to our Naruto here, as nearly all of them have some form of hatred toward the boy, whether it be catastrophe, or just being wronged by the boy. As a result, they tried everything to hold back the boy from being one of the Shinobi's rank and files. Harder than normal tests, classroom humiliation, you name it; they did it to poor Naruto. Naruto, however, had struck back at them. Making their lives more like hell the only way he knew how: Pranks.

The civilian teachers rued the day that they made contact with Naruto's pranks as one by one, they quit. It had gotten so bad that their current leader, the man known as only Sarutobi and the Third Hokage, had to part a small detail of Chunin grade ninjas to fill in the gap that Naruto's retaliation had left in the aftermath which quelled some, but not all pranks that the blond hellion produced almost daily.

It has been twelve years since Iruka Umino lost his parents in the great catastrophe that can never be mentioned in fear of the Hokage's wrath. Coincidentally, it has been three years since he started teaching the catastrophe's container, Naruto Uzumaki. At least he had help from his best friend, Mizuki, to do crowd control whenever Naruto went AWOL during one of his "Prankathons".

Today was the third day of yet another "Prankathons".

He noticed that during these "Prankathons", it is usually a competition between him and another troublemaker from either the same grade and age, or younger or older. The victor is usually Naruto as he is really creative in his highly amusing public desecration tactics.

Iruka growled, he knew that his lectures were boring, he has to be there too, you know! Now, he had to pause in his lectures to track down the number one clown before he does something that not even the Hokage can bail him out of!

Stopping for a bit, Iruka looked at his surroundings for a moment. If he was as a good a prankster as Naruto was, then he would be hiding somewhere until the heat cooled down.

"Hm…if I did this, I would hide…in the alley!" Iruka concluded as he searched the seemingly normal alleyway. When he heard movement, his confidence in his tracking skills rose as he heard shuffling in the dumpster.

"Ah, ah, Naruto! You know you can't hide from me!" Iruka paused to give a moment for Naruto to give up. When the shuffling continued, Iruka frowned. Surely, Naruto couldn't hope to make him believe that he wasn't there, could he?

"Oh Naruto…c'mon now, give up while you still can. If you do, I'll give you ramen!" Iruka baited, surely this was foolproof! Naruto would gladly give up personal secrets for a bowl of that delectable, but unhealthy food.

After a moment, Iruka had enough. It looks like he was going to wrangle his target the hard way.

"Alright, Naruto, you forced me! You'll do double cleanup duty for this back at the academy!" Iruka shouted as he rolled up his sleeves and jumped into the dumpster. The sounds of struggling and grunting as a major scuffle made for comical scene that attracted many a villager and ninja alike to the source of the scuffle.

"Ah hah! Got you…Naruto?" Iruka trailed off questionably as he noticed his crowd and blushed in embarrassment to the amusement of the crowd. He looked to what he was holding…that wasn't Naruto.

A really pissed off Alley Cat was staring back at him, Iruka had no time to shield his face as the cat attacked with righteous fury for his subsequent capture.

Five minutes later, Iruka stumbled out of the alley smelling like trash and having numerous scratches and lacerations. Iruka winced as he held his face in agony… he hoped that the scratches wouldn't leave yet another scar on his face.

All of his time, wasted and all he got for it was smelling like-

"Oof!"

"Oof!"

Two grunts sounded as two bodies toppled to the ground as the air exhaled out of the bodies. Iruka, being older than the second body, regained his air quickly and looked down.

Bingo, it was Naruto!

"Naruto!" The stern tone in Iruka's voice caught the renegade student by surprise.

"Uh oh…heh heh…hi Iruka sensei!" Naruto laughed nervously as he brought up his hand to the back of his head and started to scratch it. An action often done in embarrassment, he noted.

"So…how are you doing this fine day, Naruto?" Iruka faked politeness as was custom in their little escapades. Naruto started to sweat slightly; he knew the ritual all too well and started to back away because of it.

Iruka was quick to the draw and grabbed the boy before he could bolt; shaking his head at the speeds that Naruto can get to sometimes while being chased.

Having captured his prey, Iruka hauled back Naruto like a dangling piece of meat by having him swinging periodically with his arms and legs tied together.

_Konoha, year 2000_

_Konoha's Shinobi Academy_

Sakura Haruno was waiting patiently for her teacher Iruka to show up with the last…classmate, so to say. Honestly, she thought that boy didn't deserve to be a student at the academy, much less a ninja. She reasoned within herself that anybody who would skip nearly two thirds of the entire academy program wouldn't have the knowhow to survive in the field, from what her teacher was saying about the standard Shinobi conflicts of the past were any measure.

She knew for a fact that Naruto wouldn't be able to pick out a set of edible mushrooms from poisonous ones if they were out of supplies out on a mission…

Sakura shuddered, heaven forbid she was ever on a team with that childish brat! Now someone mature someone who attended the Shinobi program without fail like her, which was the kind of someone she could put her trust in! Someone like…

"Oh, Sasuke-Kun!" Sakura greeted cheerfully. Sasuke Uchiha was a highly trained prodigy in just about everything the academy threw at them! He acted so mature…so cool! Sakura screeched gleefully inside.

A sudden scuffling could be heard outside their classroom door and she just knew who it was…pity; it would've been nice to fantasize about Sasuke a little longer…but she could just chalk it up to Naruto on her blame list!

After a round of laughter at poor Naruto's expense, Iruka cheerfully announced since Naruto messed up today's schedule, they would have to make up for it in the form of a physical exam. Some of the class groaned, while others just accepted it. They learned far too often that Naruto will just do this even more in the future, so it was best to get it over with…

Ino Yamanaka was considered to be the best female physical ninja in the class, even if her background should say otherwise. The Yamanaka family were considered to be weak in the physical department, but extremely strong in the mental areas; often using their minds to control other people into doing their bidding out on their assigned missions.

Ino was smart by her own means but for now, her talents are divided elsewhere. For example, like all adolescent teenagers, she has a high attraction to a certain dark haired boy, one named…

"Good Morning Sasuke-Kun!" Ino greeted. If you heard closely however, you would've noticed that Ino's greeting was a tad more _cheerful_ than Sakura's.

Sakura growled how she dare drive the wedge between the destined love between her and Sasuke! How dare she indeed!

Thus began Ino vs. Sakura Stare off # 2439…

After the class ended, Iruka let everyone leave before turning over to the tied up Naruto, who was looking away, bored out of his mind. Iruka sighed, how can he get through to this boy? His final test was tomorrow!

"You know Naruto, for a boy wanting to be the Hokage; you sure aren't doing a very good job." Iruka started, making Naruto flinch slightly. While he didn't trust the boy to do his dream job right, he trusted his student to pass the trials he created. So far, Naruto wasn't doing very well and would face yet another year in the academy…a pity really, he could've been one of the best and brightest on the fields if he graduated in the first place.

"The final exam is tomorrow, Naruto. It's a simple test that anybody could've done, more or less you if you bothered to come to the practice fields instead of making a fool of yourself in the village." Iruka continued, his voice taking an edge to it. Seeing Naruto start to shake, he realized he went a bit too far. He let his past memories start to interfere with his judgment again…that will not do.

Iruka sighed, and continued without the edge.

"Because you are a returning student, you should know the final test. You have to study hard and practice hard or else you have to repeat the academy again…or that was how it was going to be."

"W-what do you mean sensei?" Naruto asked, startled by the last bit.

"Three years ago, the council decided to limit the enrollment tries of each new student to only three times, whereas as in the past, as long as you could pay the tuition, you could take it as much as you could."

"You have failed two times already, Naruto. You should've technically graduated last year with your former graduating class, with last year's rookie of the year, Neji Hyuuga. If you bomb this year, not only will you be left on your own as a civillian, you will not be able to try again as a ninja ever again." Iruka finished harshly.

"No! I can't be kicked out! I just can't!" Naruto pleaded. Iruka pitied the boy, but rules were rules.

"Maybe you should've thought of that before causing thousands of ryo of property damage…but what's done is done." Iruka said, looking away to the classroom window.

"This is your last chance, Naruto. No matter how friendly I am to you, I can't overturn the Council's decision. If you fail, the next time we meet…you can be sure I will treat you no differently than any other civillian." Iruka headed for the door, leaving a still tied up Naruto on the floor.

"H-hey! Iruka sensei! What about these ropes?!" Naruto cried out, how was he supposed to get out? He heard a small chuckle from Iruka at that, making Naruto growl. He's being mocked now?!

"If you bothered to come last week, you would've learned about genjutsu. Don't feel bad though, the classroom thought you were tied up as well. Just concentrate and say 'Kai'!" Iruka said and left the classroom.

"Huh?" Naruto asked confused. Shrugging, Naruto concentrated his mind to the ropes and shouted out…

"Kai!"

The effect was instantaneous; the ropes vanished to thin air as he could move his arms about. His arms were sore though, like they were actually bound to real ropes, but no signs that there was any rope was present on his arms or legs…

"Heh, ninjas rule!" Naruto smiled and got out of the classroom, he had to study on the final exam, and he could not fail!

_Konoha, 2000_

_Konoha's Shinobi Academy – The final test_

Today was it, the day that would define Naruto's destiny, Ninja…or civillian? He couldn't help but shudder in excitement, but also couldn't help but shudder in fear. Iruka's words shook him up and he would have crammed all night to find out what the last test will be on when he remembered what the man's words were earlier in the lecture.

"_Because you are a returning student, you should know the final test."_

Thinking back to his failed tests the years beforehand; he noted that the tests only differed in the final portion, usually by having a test of bunshin or kawarimi as the final point in grading the student.

As he reached the entrance, he started to remember how it went. If he was right, he should be engulfed in a genjutsu of sorts, a fairly simple one that just messes around with your sense of direction, having each door room number the same one as Iruka's. He failed this way on his first try by going to the cafeteria instead of his classroom, but wasn't relieved of the genjutsu till the next day.

A wave of familiar energy engulfed him and he nodded, the technique was starting. Keeping his hand to the wall, he started to concentrate on the door handles. He started to feel on certain markers he made on the door handles from the results of pranks he did on the school early on in his career as a student. Thankful he didn't waste his time completely, he kept feeling the door handles.

The first one he felt on had a roughness to it; it wasn't his classroom, but the bathroom. He remembered this as the exploding room prank, where he taped over firecrackers to the doorway and ignited them when the bathroom was full of students and staff barfing over some food he tampered with the night beforehand.

He snickered; he got in soo much trouble for that one!

Continuing on, he felt another door…this was it!

Grinning confidently, he opened the door…to reveal Iruka and some students having arrived. To his credit, most of the class were shocked that he made it through where his track record suggested that he would've thought the roof was his classroom.

"Glad you made it Naruto, how did you do it?" Iruka asked, interested at how his wayward student made it through. He was certain that his student couldn't have made it the normal way, as he expected of his other students. He looked backwards and saw that both Mizuki and the class were just as, if not more interested how the dead last student ever to attend the academy passed this portion of the test as opposed to how more able students are still wandering the hallways for their own classrooms.

"Well…I just felt the door handles!" Naruto replied with a large grin.

"Door handles?" Ino asked, getting confused.

"Yep! Every prank I ever did at this school left a mark on the door handles, and using those marks, I made my way here!" Naruto finished, proud of his pathfinding skills.

Iruka was impressed, that was a very good method of genjutsu training, but while it wasn't exactly the correct way of doing the test, it was a better action than just the "Kai" function. Still, not to leave out the students who did the simple action, he decided to remind Naruto.

"That was impressive, Naruto. However, your life would've been a little easier if you just used the "Kai" Technique." Iruka said to a now snickering classroom, but Naruto just let out a hardy laugh.

"But Iruka sensei, I just love a challenge!" Naruto shot back.

Iruka laughed softly.

"I guess you do love challenges, Naruto, your pranks say that for you all too well. Take your seat and wait for the next part." Iruka instructed and continued looking at the door for more students to take his test.

While Iruka was waiting, all of his cleared students were having their own reactions to Naruto's method of passing their teacher's test.

Sakura wasn't impressed, she was sure it was all luck.

Ino was quite impressed, seeing that the dead last used such an advanced training method to pass a simple test, even if the solution was a bit overboard.

Sasuke was frowning; the dead last stumbled onto a training method he could've used to beat _that man's_ genjutsu techniques someday. Growling to himself, he stored that bit of information away for his next training regimen.

As the personal thoughts and comments rolled on and on about how it was pure luck to hidden talent that Naruto scraped by on, Iruka nodded and turned to the half empty classroom and started to address his hopeful students.

"Congratulations, you passed the first part of the Final Exam. Now is the more lighter side of the examination, but the most crucial part of it." Iruka started, but was interrupted by Sakura.

"Crucial?"

Iruka nodded.

"Correct, Sakura. Although this is a simpler part of the exam, we base the grades heavily on this part. This will determine your abilities on the fields as a Shinobi." Iruka spoke to the enticed classroom, he just loved having the room focus on his words than anything else when he was teaching…if only it were like this every day, he would have been content just talking the days away like this.

"Now, as you were listening, my assistant Mizuki was preparing the room next to us for your test. It will be a random academy jutsu, as well as a simple questionnaire before that." Iruka coughed and pulled out a roster of names.

"Now, I'll call you up for your test and we'll begin with alphabetical order, starting with…Abuko Hikari." Iruka pointed to a startled girl with casual civilian dressings and motioned for the girl to follow him out the door. The students inside could hear some of their classmates plead with Iruka to allow them to take the test to no avail.

One by one, students were called in to pass and become professional ninjas or for them to try but fail and have no choice but to become one of the poorly trained civilian population members of society. All in all, it was nerve-wracking.

"Uchiha Sasuke? Come with me." Mizuki's voice prompted. Naruto impatiently waited for them to call him, he would show them that he could pass that test!

Ten minutes later, his chance came in the form of Mizuki.

"Uzumaki Naruto? You're up." He said cheerfully, while exiting quickly. Naruto followed him, excitement written all over his face.

In the classroom next door, a desk full of headbands were displayed in folded position and recently polished.

"Wow…" Naruto breathed out as he saw the shiny headbands, which made Iruka smile. He was just like that when he was a lad as well. Digging from a bag on the desk where the headbands were also, he pulled out a yellow piece of paper.

"Alright Naruto, here's your test: Just do a couple of Bunshin, and name a famous technique from the First Hokage. Simple, right?" Iruka asked, a small smile on his face. Naruto smiled brightly, while Mizuki scowled inwardly, the plan had gone awry! Where was his suggestion he especially made for Naruto go to?

"Ok! Here I go!" Naruto exclaimed while putting his hands into the correct position for the Bunshin Technique, something that Iruka noticed happily with, since Naruto often jumbled that with the Kawarimi seals, making his bunshins seem like crap.

Of course, the test got a little rocky as the energy needed for any technique, Chakra, started to flail up and about the boy. Iruka was a well read person, so he was amazed that the over lashing chakra didn't seem to hurt the boy, contrary to what the advanced book on Chakra did to a normal person's body said so.

Unfortunately, while Naruto wasn't a normal boy in terms of anything, he was sure that his chakra wouldn't be as harmless to the two proctors in front of him…

"Ah, Naruto stop for a moment!" Iruka shouted out, breaking the boy's concentration. Seeing the boy confused, as well as Mizuki, he clarified.

"Just a moment Naruto, I need to move some of the desks so you can have more room for your bunshin."

"Wha…huh?" Naruto asked confused, an action humorously imitated by Mizuki as well.

Dragging Mizuki to a far corner of a classroom and whispering to his ear about how Naruto's chakra could very well destroy them by standing near him if goes off prematurely, Mizuki was now all for the idea of moving the desks to observe him from afar, even if it was to protect his limbs from total obliteration.

"Ok Naruto, try again. This time, just let it all out and do as much bunshin as you like." Iruka shouted slightly, yelling from the furthest corner of the classroom, away from him. Mizuki nodded from behind Iruka, a desk overturned was in front of him just in case.

Naruto sweatdropped at the supposed shield and sighed at the somewhat childish barrier that Mizuki put up before gathering his hands in the bunshin technique's seals.

"Ok…" Naruto said nervously as he stepped forward unconsciously, much to Mizuki's dismay, his carefully constructed seal…that brat!

Iruka noticed that the chakra lashes started up again, but not as violent as before the…changes in testing arenas. Giving a glance to Mizuki, he seemed to be seething before calming himself into an interested face, maybe he was terrified at the prospect of having his head blown off?

"Here we go! Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted. The chakra seemed to glow for a minute and for a small moment everything was silent.

_Outside the Ninja Academy_

Sasuke was currently trying to focus on other things than the endless chattering of these fangirls! He would try to escape, but they always seem to put their pitiful tracking skills to use and somehow find him again in a few hours…what he wouldn't give for a distraction right now!

_**KABOOM**__!_

The shattered windows of the testing room and their normal classroom rained over the panicked populace of the proud ninja wannabes as the parents covered the passing and failing students' heads with their own bodies as the glass rained down.

Fortunately, the glass was shattered into harmless pieces from the explosion and the worst injury was a scraped knee from falling into the pavement and dirt surrounding the academy.

For some reason, Sasuke could only think of one person who could've done this…

'Naruto.' Sasuke thought and looked around his immediate area; no one was paying attention to him…that worked out fine!

'Naruto…you may be the deadlast, but thanks for the distraction!' Sasuke turned and sped off to his apartment, its location guarded by the council in fear of abduction and whatnot.

When the smoke cleared, Iruka and Mizuki were coughing while patting themselves for any missing ears or arms from the explosion when he was helped up by a small hand. Iruka was a little regretful that his unadmittingly brightest student would fail but was surprised when three more pairs of hands helped him up.

Wait a minute…bunshin were transparent, they wouldn't be able to touch paper let alone human skin…but how?

No way…the thought shocked Iruka greatly; surely the boy couldn't have discovered a more advanced version of the Clone Technique, could it?

"Hey, sensei?" Naruto asked from the still smoky room.

"Yes, Naruto?" Iruka called back. Mizuki was still dazed from the explosion.

"I think the first Hokage had a tree technique, Mokuto…or something." Naruto said into the room, the smoke was clearing up and he could see the outlines of his teachers.

"Its Mokuton, Naruto, but close enough." Iruka said, now able to see Naruto clearly with a smile on his face.

"Does this mean I pass?" Naruto asked hopefully, eyeing the scattered headbands.

Iruka chuckled, picking out the least dirty of the headbands off the floor, and giving it to a brightly smiling Naruto.

"Congratulations, Naruto Uzumaki, on making Genin class!" Iruka said warmly, not expecting a hug from his explosion causing student.

"Yahoo! Thanks Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted albeit painfully into Iruka's ear while speeding off past curious students like Ino Yamanaka and Ubimi Shelko.

Iruka simply turned toward his remaining students and said…

"Next?"

While Naruto was proudly showing off his headband to anyone who would care to listen, Mizuki was forming a plan while watching some other student bomb the simplest test in the world.

His "suggestion" seemed to disappear from the bag of suggested tests and figured that Iruka must've checked it for hard tests that other academy teachers might've put in the bag. Another was the carefully hidden seal that he crafted painstakingly the night before.

Ever since he came across a necklace that a peddler sold him a long time ago on a mission to the grass village, he had discovered that he was sold a very potent necklace made of chakra and glass fused together. It also seemed to alter his chakra to a point where he got other gifts from the necklace like an increase to his speed and something even more astonishing.

He was able to transform into something very powerful, a being made of the hottest flames with a large increase in his already natural abilities.

Not that Iruka needed to know that, no sir. This was his power to keep and this was his key to ruling this pathetic province that they call "The strongest ninja village in the elemental countries"…

His trigger was that of Naruto Uzumaki falling the test and he, like the good assistant would tell him the next phase of his plan wrapped around the delusion of having a second chance at the test where he would be able to become a ninja just yet was laughable in his eyes, but he needed that dunce to fail…yet nothing seemed to go his way that day…

That little brat had passed!

Trying to salvage the plan was to find a freaking needle in a haystack! It seemed impossible but of course it was always found eventually…

"Mizuki?" A voice cut through his thoughts, it was Iruka.

"Hm?" He grunted, cut off from his thoughts.

"This young lady passed, give her the headband please." Iruka instructed. Sighing, Mizuki did as told.

That damned Iruka, always thinking he was better…wait a minute…

A feral grin reigned inside and outside of Mizuki, of course!

The grin didn't fade at all making another student's confidence falter and ultimately fail like others before him, much to the sick pleasure of Mizuki.

Heading home toward his apartment, the excitement of passing was fading slightly in Naruto's mind, but was instantly refilled when he thought of his future career as a kick-butt ninja elite! What would he able to do was left to his imagination as he went toward his favorite eating spot for his dinner, good ol' ramen!

As if expecting someone to be inside, he called out.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka Umino was a tough as nails teacher in the academy, but when outside those walls, he was a pretty damn decent guy. At least, in Naruto's eyes.

"Yo, Naruto!" Iruka smiled in greeting, a bowl of ramen just served stood before him. He took a set of chopsticks and started to eat a bit before turning back to Naruto, who was ordering a bowl of his own.

"Looks like I got you in a good time Naruto, I had something to talk to you about." Iruka started and continued as he got Naruto's attention.

"Its about your test today."

Now that caught Naruto's attention for sure.

"What about it, sensei?" He asked, confused at the revelation.

"Well…I was looking through the tests after you left and found out something interesting about your written portion. Now normally, it would just be looked over in favor of the student's abilities in talents like the bunshin test, but in your case…" Iruka trailed off to eat another portion of the rapidly cooling ramen, unnerving Naruto a bit. The next words could break his career before it even lifted off the ground!

"As I was saying, in your case Naruto…your ability test could not score high enough to make up for your paper's dismal test, so…that headband is totally worthless right now." Iruka finished while cleaning out his bowl of ramen by drinking the broth from the bowl.

"W-w-what?! What does that mean Iruka-sensei!?" Naruto was horrified at the conclusion. He balked a bit on the paper, yeah, but to take away his hard earned right to become ninja?! How would he ever become the Hokage this way!?

"Calm down Naruto! I said that its worthless right now. Get it? _Right now._" Iruka waited as he saw his student calm a bit before continuing.

"I have another option for you, a secondary _test_ if you can call it that. Do it for me, and you'll be in the roster for the team selections." He was about to continue, but was stopped by Naruto's confused face.

"Team Selections?" He asked, making Iruka put his face to his palm.

"Ah, right I forgot. You weren't here, seeing as you were causing hell in the village." Naruto grinned sheepishly at this, but wasn't regretful in the slightest.

"Basically, every graduate gets placed in teams of three with a Jounin class ninja-"Iruka was interrupted again.

"Jounin?"

"Naruto…man, to not even know what a Jounin is…" Iruka sighed and answered Naruto's query.

"A Jounin is a third class Ninja, Naruto. First is Genin, which was you were supposed to be, but I was explaining on how to redeem yourself, but whatever. Second is Chunin, which is what I am. Anbu can be considered a fourth rank, but since they consist of second and third level ninjas, it really isn't."

"Anyways, about your second test…" Iruka started whispering in Naruto's ear, while the boy was nodding eagerly, as he was desperate to stay as a ninja at all costs…

_Konoha, 2000_

_Hokage Tower Courtyard_

"This has gone too far!"

"Send out squads for his extermination!"

Bits and shouts of enraged conversation were briefly heard as ninja of all classes were assembled in the Hokage's tower on how to proceed with the problem at hand. It produced headaches of infinite ranges of pain for the old leader as he heard crap and more crap from biased people trying to rally the immature in mind to mobilize and strike down the problem at hand.

The problem? Naruto Uzumaki has stolen a very important scroll that documented pretty much several village secrets and moves considered barbaric to even try.

While he wasn't worried too much about the scroll, since it came back eventually before any vital secrets were discovered, he was worried about a _certain secret_ that was written by him in the scroll that contained the boy and his…powers.

This wasn't the time to lament, as he had to restore order.

"Silence!"

The pumped up group ceased to aggravate things further and stood facing the Hokage, waiting for orders.

"Find the boy alive, and retrieve the scroll by any means necessary. I'll decide the boy's fate when he is brought before me. Go!"

At the leader's words, the group of gathered ninja dispersed, willing to do the leader's will. The old Hokage sighed before calling to the being behind him.

"Ah, Kakashi. Come with me for a moment."

_Konoha 2000_

_Konoha's forest: 100 Kilometers south of the village._

Naruto was waiting at the drop point that Iruka told him to wait at…but it was so boring! He needed something to do around here and there was nothing but waiting and keeping an eye on the impossibly large scroll on the side of an abandoned hut he was told to wait at.

Sighing, seeing as Iruka said nothing about looking through the scroll, started to unfurl it and found…

Techniques! Lots and lots of techniques! Score!

Giggling like a schoolboy (which technically, according to Iruka-sensei, he was), he started reading, remembering what he could about the interesting techniques he saw written in the scroll.

_Kage Bunshin: Using a large burst of chakra, one can create combat efficient clones to use as the user's wishes to be used._

'Kage bunshin, huh? Sounds a lot better than bunshin, that's for sure!' Naruto smiled and started to work on the seals that was used to create them. Surprisingly, it was just an alteration to the regular seal the regular bunshin used.

Using as much chakra that was needed to in the bunshin, he shouted out the move's name before exploding in smoke.

Much to the chagrin, it didn't go so well…

But there wasn't anything to feel bad; it was just like the bunshin. He had to keep trying…

After a couple hours of looking at the scroll for hints on how to do it right, he finally mastered the move known as Kage Bunshin.

"Alright! I did it! Goodbye, old bunshin! Hello, kick ass new bunshin!" Naruto exclaimed and looked for another sweet technique when the words faded from technique instructions to reports that were hidden away deeper in the scroll.

"Huh? What's this? Report 2568? Report 2974? What's all this?" Naruto skimmed over reports, not finding anything of value. That is until he saw something different.

"Report 4857: Kyuubi? Oh wow, maybe a firsthand look about the battle with the fourth Hokage and the great and terrible Kyuubi!" Naruto spoke excitedly about what the report contained.

_Report 4857: Kyuubi_

_October 10, 1988_

_Several reports of increased wildfires were immediately ignored as the worst catastrophe since Uchiha Madara's defection since the village's founding has occurred: The Great Demon, Kyuubi no Kitsune has arrived unexpectedly 400 kilometers from Konoha itself. Dispatched teams were either decimated or seemingly burned alive from what scouts reported from the primary engagement squads toward the beast._

_Using volunteers to distract the beast, Hokage-sama is meeting with Sandaime-sama to utilize the experimental container to seal the beast inside the container to utilize its powers to hopefully use the powers of the Kyuubi and to complete a pending problem with the experimental container that was brought forth by Sennin Orochimaru._

_Report 4857 (b): The Kyuubi was subdued and the experimental container was a success at the cost of 485 combined Genin, Chunin, and Jounin. Anbu divisions from both normal and the root sub faction took heavy losses and are considering shutting down operations indefinitely._

"Wow…that was scary as hell, even ANBU was about to quit!" Naruto commented to himself, thinking what was the feeling these guys were feeling when they wrote about it.

_Report 4857 (c): Startling reports have arisen concerning the container's status. It seems that the container mutated into a living organism, humanoid in nature…Hokage-sama has decreed that this organism is in fact human, and shall be given a name._

Naruto tensed, like any good mystery seeker. He was about to find out the container's name! Maybe he knew the guy or girl from somewhere.

_The container's name shall be written here for future references, it has been called-_

"Naruto Uzumaki!" A loud voice boomed throughout the forest, startling Naruto from reading the name on the report while looking up at the same time. A pissed off Iruka was holding his arms crossed, a full glare was on his face and was directing it at him.

"What are you doing with that!?" Iruka shouted at him, making Naruto confused. Wasn't this part of the test?

"Iruka-sensei?" He voiced his confusion. He was the one to give him the test in the first place!

"I don't know what kind of prank you had in mind with this, but as of now, this is treason!" Iruka said, his anger taking over his rationality towards the boy. He could get executed for this!

"Treason?! But, isn't this a test?" Naruto was shocked, how was this treason? This was a test done regularly, right?

"Test? What are you talking about, Naruto? You passed the test already! Today, remember?" Iruka asked, exasperated at the poor excuse the boy was giving. But one look at the boy's eyes told him that he really thought this was a test.

"Yeah, you know! The test you gave me at the ramen stand earlier! You said my test grades sucked enough that not even the jutsu test could cover it!" Naruto said, now getting annoyed that this was just a cruel joke by the man.

"W-whaat?! Your test wasn't the best, sure, but the jutsu tests practically override the damn thing! You were fine!" Iruka said, bewildered. Now it was Naruto's turn to look shocked.

"But what about your _Second_ test?! You know, the one you whispered in my ear about?!" Iruka just looked on bewildered as earlier.

"What second test?! And for that matter, I wasn't at the ramen stand today, I had a meeting today!"

"Then what-" Naruto was cut off as something shiny glinted in the moonlight and it was heading right toward them.

"Sensei! Watch out!" Iruka looked behind him and quickly grabbed Naruto and pushed him toward the ground. A few seconds later, a large shuriken embedded itself on the tree that was to the side of them. A figure landed in front of him, making both look up at the potential enemy. The moonlight showed who it was, and it shocked them to the core…

"Iruka-sensei?!"

--

_**I admit, this is more dynamic than the earlier version, but a rewrite was just begging to be born as I read over the chapters and thought that it was a little too predictable for me. It will still have the basic plotline as that Naruto will awaken his powers and etc, etc.**_

_**However, the way he will accept it, now that will be revealed later.**_

_**Sorry for not updating, but the rewrite will be much better, more "Robotic" in nature, hahaha.**_

_**Until next time!**_


	2. A day in the life: Powering up

Rockman Naruto – Reloaded

Chapter Two: Powering Up

* * *

Naruto couldn't believe his eyes, it wasn't just possible! There were two Irukas!

Helping what he thought was the true Iruka up from the ground, both he and Iruka stood to face against the newcomer Iruka while trying to distance himself from the both of them in case this was a trap.

Normally, he wouldn't do that to Iruka-Sensei of all people, but with all this freaky crap going on tonight...well he ain't taking any chances, thats for sure!

"Ah, good job at passing the test Naruto! You will definitely make the team selections!" Newcomer Iruka said to Naruto with a bright smile, something that made it creepy given the situation.

"I-I do?" Naruto asked carefully. The slight stutter made Newcomer Iruka's smile beam brighter than before.

"Oh yes, my student, you made the roster all right...the roster of which team gets to execute you!" Newcomer Iruka laughed insanely now, giving both Naruto and Iruka the creeps.

"I wonder who it will be? Anbu? Or will it finally wake up our Hokage enough to let the whole village annihilate you with one shot?" Newcomer Iruka said with glee. Iruka's eyes narrowed, _our Hokage_?

Must be a leaf ninja copying him then!

"Who are you imposter?! I know you're not me!" Iruka shouted, looking for any clues as to the imposter's identity. Somehow, the newcomer didn't leave much clues about his true identity.

Newcomer Iruka frowned, but he knew Iruka inside out, having been close to him for so long. He knew what he was trying to do, but it wouldn't get him!

"What are you talking about, you are obviously the fake here!" He shouted back at Iruka, who was startled. Unfortunately, Naruto saw this and his perception was shaken badly, who was the real one?!

"Wh-what are you talking about? I know I'm me!" Iruka glared at the fake harshly. He was Umino Iruka, dammit! Has been from day one!

"Oh? I don't think so, you false identity! I know way more than you do about me than you do about Naruto here!" Newcomer Iruka laughed suddenly, as if getting an idea.

"I know! Lets have Naruto decide who is real? The one with the most knowledge about our wayward student is obviously the real Iruka and shall put to death the fake! Lets begin!" Newcomer Iruka said brightly while turning to face a stunned Naruto.

"Naruto, I've always helped you correct your clumsy use of handseals! Only I was there whenever someone tried to sabotage you like last year!" N. Iruka said confidently.

"That...yeah I remember that happened! It was during the summer term..." Naruto said shakily, maybe this was the real Iruka?

Seeing the doubt and the beginnings of false recognition, Iruka jumped into the fray.

"Naruto! I've always caught you whenever you did your prankathons! You always went one on one for days against Kiba, or someone who challenged you at being the better prankster!"

"That is the best you have, imposter? Anyone could do that! Naruto, I've always gave you gentle corrections whenever you got your history wrong. Remember when you got lost during the lesson of the third Shinobi war?" N. Iruka said with a gentle smile.

"Maybe..." Naruto trailed off with a questioning look...

Iruka panicked!

"Naruto, remember when I always treated you to ramen, even when you didn't have the cash? I saw you starving that rainy day when I started!"

"W-what? That was years ago! Only Iruka would know that!" Naruto shouted in remembrance, back when his and Iruka's relationship outside of Student and Teacher started!

N. Iruka growled, he didn't know that! He was absent that day from teaching, from what his official reports said.

"Also, remember what I taught you at the end of class the other day! It was about genjutsu, and you were tied by ropes!"

"Yeah! You told me how to do it! It was-" Naruto was surprisingly cut off by N. Iruka.

"Wait a minute, everyone knows that! It was the Kai, or "release" technique! I'm sure I gave it to you as you were tied up by hands and feet!" he shouted out.

Naruto was startled, everyone knew about that? Man, he really should've gone to school more often...

"Not everyone, imposter! Or else, Naruto would have done something with it in his pranks, maybe to get away from a sticky situation?" Iruka grinned at the prank Naruto did so long ago. It was certainly sticky for anyone to forget.

N. Iruka was desperate, he needed something to keep up the facade or else the plan would go bad.

"Ah, I know something that not even this imposter would know!" Iruka was shocked, something even he wouldn't know!? Naruto was curious as well at this hidden info, it could show him who was the real Iruka after all.

"I remember in the fall quarter, I caught you trying to deface the Hokage monument! You were halfway drawing swirlies on the Sandaime's face when I caught you from below! Only the real Iruka would know that!" N. Iruka said with all the conviction he could muster.

A thick silence filled the air as N. Iruka's proclamation was fading from the minds of the listeners.

"..."

"..."

"...what?" N. Iruka said confusedly, as Iruka smirked.

"I got you now, you fake!" Iruka started to smile a lot as Naruto was now smiling at Iruka.

"That couldn't be possible, as Naruto was defacing the _Nindaime_'s face with swirlies and I caught him from _above_!"

"Wha-whaaat!?" N. Iruka said with a shocked expression on his face. It was priceless to see on his own face, even if it was fake.

"I know now for sure that you are not real, you fake. Remove that facade you call my face and show yourself!"

"N-no! I know I was telling the truth! I made the report myself!" N. Iruka blurted out, before clamping his mouth shut, he said too much!

"Reports? You mean those reports I give to the administration office for _anyone_to see? Those reports?" Iruka question before facing Naruto, he was sure of his student's judgment now.

"Naruto, who is the fake Iruka?"

Grinning, Naruto pointed at N. Iruka, who was bemoaning the fact that he chose him.

A sinister chuckle filled the air as everything was pulled out into the open...

Naruto and Iruka was staring at the fake Iruka who was laughing madly. It was disturbing to see at least.

"Hahahahahaha! I knew this was a shaky plan, only for it to almost succeed! I clearly overestimated Naruto's stupidity on clouding his judgment, as it almost worked too well..." N. Iruka continued, his madness gleaming into the night.

"I tried to imitate Iruka into letting your guard down, Naruto, so that I might take that priceless artifact from your dead hands once I sliced your head off! Then as I made my escape, Anbu surveillance would see Iruka and maybe give him congrats on a job well done...or at least have him executed for crimes against the state!"

"I really thought I would get away tonight Scot-free, but it seems I need to burn away some evidence first!"

The scenes that played before them was horrifying. It seemed that the fake Iruka seemed to have his skin redden and redden until what seemed to be the skin catching on fire did he shout out in glee.

"NOW! I WILL SHOW YOU MY TRUE FORM! ARISE, FLAMEMAN!" N. Iruka shouted as he roared with massive power bursts coming from him transformed him into a totally different shape altogether.

He was now over six feet tall with flames for hair and his body seemed to be encased in flameproof armor, where bursts of flame flared up with each breath out of the area where hands were supposed to be.

The area where his hands were now replaced with machinery of some kind with tiny holes all around it, it seemed to be an outlet of some sort for flames were shooting out of it sometimes and the barrel that was at the front of this machinery spouted out white hot flames. Seeing their awed expressions, the newly dubbed Flameman started laughing.

"I see you are awed by my true form, my audience. Be honored, for this the last time you ever see this magnificent form! HRAAA!" Flameman shouted out as the flames by his machine arms grew bigger and the barrel started to glow white, never a good sign.

Naruto was picked up by a scrambling Iruka as the fire engulfed the area they were standing in was ignited by flames. The flames were so hot that a passing chipmunk was turned to ash instantly to Iruka's horror.

"HAHAHAHA! YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME!" Flameman alternated by soft and crazed shouting as he took to the air after the fleeing party, igniting the nearby trees.

It took three hours and several close calls with Flameman, before Iruka saw the main gates of Konoha and was glad to see some on guard Chunin and a couple of Jounin on standby, perhaps they were curious of the sudden wildfires. He started to run to them and was in eyesight of the now curious Jounin before a massive wall of flame cut him off from reinforcements.

"I'm sorry Iruka, but don't you know that too much heat causes mirages? I'm sure you understand desert effects, no?" Flameman seemed to have shifted into N. Iruka again as the wall of flames spread out and made a spacious arena of sorts to do their final duel.

"You psycho path, you still wear my face for all this?! What are you!?" Iruka growled out as the flames were starting to get to him, not to mention his exhaustion was creeping up on him.

"Why Iruka? Don't you know? You felt flames, much hotter flames than I could ever hope to produce after all, and you get tired already? I thought those fleeting moments in which you lost your dear parents in face of that monstrosity sitting next to you would have raised your fire resistance to much higher than what I see now...pathetic!" N. Iruka glared at Iruka.

"Wh-what?! How did you know that?" Iruka said, shocked at the revelation, as very few people knew what happened that fateful night.

"What's going on?" Naruto said, making the two people look in his direction as if confirming his existence in the conversation. Suddenly, N. Iruka smirked.

"Oh how could I forget! This thing is still here, the thing that Iruka ironically protecting with his life, the life that was shattered by your doing!" N. Iruka started laughing. Something that irked Naruto to no end.

"Stop laughing, you freak! What is going on, why do you treat me like I'm not -" Naruto was cut off by N. Iruka.

"Like you are not human? Thats because I know the truth, you thing! I know you are not human at all...no I know what you are!" N. Iruka growled out.

Naruto was scared, was he not what he seemed?

"Wh...what am I then?" Naruto asked, to the shock of Iruka.

"Wait! DON'T!" Iruka shouted to no avail. N. Iruka laughed as he revealed it to Naruto.

"You are nothing more than a demon, a demon that was defeated twelve years ago by our great leader, the Yondaime Hokage..."

"What?! But the demon that was defeated by the Yondaime was...wait...no, it can't be?!" Naruto's eyes were as wide as saucers as the information was processed by his brain, it wasn't possible!

"Oh but it is, demon scum. You are nothing more than the shell that was the Kyuubi no Kitsune!" N. Iruka said with such hatred that it made Naruto stumble and fall at the pressure the man's words and revelations that were revealed to him.

"I...I am a demon?" Naruto was still trying to convince himself otherwise, and was failing badly.

N. Iruka smiled brightly, it was his chance at ending the hell that was causing the plights his village, or should it be his former village was suffering at the hands of this demon just by finishing him off with a flaming shuriken, an attack that just engulfs an ordinary giant shuriken with flames would more than enough and be very ironic to this shell, as the demon's full form was nothing but flames.

He made another transformation.

"IT IS TIME TO END THIS! FLAMING SHURIKEN! HAAA!" Flameman shouted out as he launched a large shuriken toward a stunned Naruto. He laughed as it got closer, closer to the demon's shell.

Then...

SPLAT!

A sound of the shuriken hitting a person's body.

A shocked expression...

Naruto could only stare as Iruka took the large shuriken meant for him using his body as a shield. Using his back to take the hit, he could only grimace before collapsing next to Naruto.

He was surprisingly still conscious though.

"N-Naruto..." Iruka grunted out in pain as Naruto's mind took what happened in stride.

"Sensei!" Naruto shouted out in shock, as if what he did to him was extraordinary. Even Flameman was interested in this new development.

"You aren't a demon...you are human, just like me...you are Naruto...a new genin of Konoha, you can't be anything else than that...you were always saying that you wanted to be Hokage...I believed that Hokages are great beings, human or not. I know that you are human in my eyes..." Iruka trailed off, as he lost consciousness.

Naruto started to tear up as he was acknowledged by his only friend but was rudely interrupted by Flameman's laughter.

"OH, HOW SWEET...SUCH A CLASSIC MOMENT! I WISHED I HAD A CAMERA..." Flameman laughed again as the machine arms ignited even more with white hot flames.

"NOW DEMON SPAWN...YOUR EXISTENCE SHALL BE ERASED BY THE HOLY FLAMES WITHIN ME....HAHAHAHA, TIME TO DIE DEMON!" Flameman started to run at Naruto who only had time to do a set of handseals before engulfed in flames...

As soon as the firestorm stopped, Flameman stopped to see his handiwork and started to laugh at the absence of both Iruka and Naruto's bodies when he stopped at his sudden observation...

No Iruka? He didn't aim at him at all...Damn it!

* * *

Come on...come on!

Naruto was trying his best with his solid clones to carry an injured Iruka to the gates of Konoha that were so close right now as far as his eyesight was concerned.

He was almost there, almost there...

"What the?! Kid, what the hell happened!?" The Jounin guard was demanding on Naruto, who was panting heavily.

"Something...something attacked us, its heading right this way!" Naruto was trying to catch his breath as he sensed a large burst of energy slowly coming this way.

"Oh crap..."

"What? Whats happening!?" One of the Chunin guards was asking. He was starting to feel that mass of energy coming from down the road.

"Its coming! Get Iruka-sensei to a hospital and close the gates! I'll try and stop him!" Naruto told the guards and ran toward the source of energy.

"Hey, wait!" The Jounin shouted after Naruto but after sensing the energy from down the road, he did what he was told.

"Alright, get this person to a hospital and close the gates! Inform the Hokage of this!" The Jounin ordered while his chunin subordinates did what they were told, also sensing this energy.

Flameman was walking with full confidence toward Konoha, seeing that there was no choice available for him now.

Escape into the shadows was no longer a possibility for him now, seeing that the demon must've informed the village of him after all.

The only option for him was to destroy the village and rebuild a new one, one that will respect his glorious self and worship his very being.

"Hey! You freak!" A voice cut into his thoughts.

"Ah...the demon spawn, here to offer your demonic shell into the holy flames?" Flameman chuckled and ignited his weapons. Naruto only growled and put his hands to make a series of seals in slow motion.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted as hundreds of clones appeared around Flameman, who was now staring seriously at the situation.

"Kage Bunshin? This must be one of the secret techniques in the forbidden scroll..." Flameman smirked.

"But this is no match for me!" Flameman slammed his arms into the ground as Naruto and his clones charged at the being with full intent on killing the thing when Flameman shouted.

"TAKE THIS! MARAGI PILLAR!" Flameman's weapons grew white with heat before discharging it toward the ground around him. Naruto didn't notice until the ground rumbled and cracked with pressure before pillars of flame and dust engulfed the entire area.

Not even smoke remained of the destroyed clones as the fire engulfed them all at once, suddenly only one Naruto stood in the area, crouching in pain as he tried to stay consciousness.

"So...so powerful!" He started to breathe heavily from trying not to pass out from the burns all over his body from the attack.

"YES...YES! YOU CAN SEE WHAT I CAN DO!" A chuckle insued.

"YOU ARE NOT ENOUGH TO DEFEAT ME, DEMON OR NOT!" Flameman laughed as he ran and grabbed Naruto by the throat, as the clothes were mostly charred and torn from the attack.

"Urgh..." Naruto struggled but he only got burned hands from trying to grip the burning weapons...

"How? You have no hands!" Naruto tried to point out. He was corrected as the flames started to form into a facsimile of a hand, which was around his throat, it felt normal, to his shock.

Flameman reverted back to his level of voice...Naruto figured he used it to speak softly...not that he had the time to think that anyways...

"Oh, but I do, its just not needed to be seen, as you can see...the flames are my hands, my mind, and my heart...and soon, they well be known as demon slayers..."

He swung Naruto once and and threw him far into the sky while charging up his weapons and aiming at the airborne Naruto.

"TIME FOR YOU TO BE PURIFIED! HOLY FLAMES! HAAAAA!" Flameman launched brilliant white flames at Naruto, who couldn't do anything about it, he only closed his eyes and waited until the flames obliterated him.

Flameman started laughing as the impact created a large explosion in the sky, alerting everyone of their doom as he started his walk toward domination of the doomed village...

The Hokage and Kakashi were looking shocked at the container's fate and were trying to find any sign before focusing their gaze at the thing that destroyed Naruto.

"Kakashi, get ready for battle." The Hokage ordered. Kakashi said a quick "hai!" and disappeared to prepare for an attack that could rival the Kyuubi attack.

_Naruto's Mindscape, Time Frozen_

Naruto woke up as he tried to gather his bearings before looking around and waking up to a ….white space?

"Where am I?" Naruto said to himself. He stood up and tried walking around but felt like he wasn't moving at all.

"_**CONTAINER....**_"

"Wh..what?!" Naruto was startled.

"_**CONTAINER...AWAKEN...**_"

"Container? Is that what I am?" Naruto tried to ask the voice, but was met with silence.

"_**CONTAINER...IT IS TIME TO SHED YOUR IDENTITY...EMBRACE YOUR TRUE FORM...**_"

"My...true form?" Naruto asked, that fake Iruka said something about a true form as well...could he have such a form? Would he burst into flames like that freak would?

"_**CONTAINER...WILL YOU EMBRACE YOUR TRUE FORM? THE FORM OF HEROES' PAST?"**_

"Heroes? Heroes had these forms too?" Naruto was getting excited now, his excitement overiding his fear.

If people like the Yondaime had this form, it made him even cooler! This might even get him to be Hokage too?

"_**CONTAINER...STEP FORWARD, AND EMBRACE YOUR TRUE FORM...**_"

Naruto jogged forward, or what he thought was forward and stopped when a glowing seal erupted around him.

"Woah!" Naruto said as the seal started to shrink and expand around him as finally the seal was wrapping itself around Naruto's body, causing a sudden sparkly tingle around Naruto's body.

"what...what is happening to me? What are these thoughts? Arrrgh!" Naruto screamed as his eyes shot wide open with pain. Sudden as it happened, it stopped but Naruto stood still as he gathered...his new thoughts.

'_What...I don't remember being here...what is going on?'_Naruto thought as he kept remembering that one thought, he could even call it a memory but that was preposterous!

_-Flashback-_

_Konoha, 1988?_

_Disclosed Area_

"_We must use this to even stop the beast, sensei!" A smooth voice said to his sensei as rumbling sounds were occasionally interrupting the conversation, making the sensei's responses muffled._

_It seemed to please the smooth man's voice as he started to grab something that had a humanoid shape. Naruto felt like he was being dragged as well before blacking out..._

_-flashback-_

"_**CONTAINER...IT IS DONE...YOU HAVE EMBRACED YOUR TRUE FORM, NOW GO AND SHOW THE WORLD WHO YOU REALLY ARE...ROCKMAN!**_"

"Rockman? That's my real na-" Naruto didn't even finish as he was whisked away from the area in a flash of light.

"_**......**_"

_Konoha, 2000_

_Village gates_

Flameman was laughing as he shot flame burst after flame burst at the pathetic display of a gate defense as more and more Konoha shinobi were either burned alive or were running away to avoid being caught by his holy flames.

As his mother always said, those that burn by the holy flames deserve nothing less than purified .

"Ugh, what is that thing?!" A Chunin combatant said to his Jounin superior.

"I don't know, but this is bad...its heading toward the Hokage Tower!" The Jounin shouted in distress as the being shot more flames toward attacking shinobi before walking once more to the Hokage tower, leaving agonizing soldiers to their deaths...

After causing bodily destruction, Flameman came upon the Ramen stand that both Iruka and that demon spawn ate at regularly and came up with an idea.

Aiming with both his machine arms, he quickly ignited the ramen stand and laughed as it burned to the ground before walking at a brisk pace toward his destination.

* * *

_Konoha, 2000_

_Hokage Tower Entrance_

Flameman came upon a large Garrison of shinobi of all ranks from Chunin to Jounin to Anbu speckled there and here trying to mount a last stand against this hellish creature.

"Whatever you are, stand down! We'll be forced to fire if you do not desist!" The Jounin commander shouted toward Flameman.

"Oh? Why would I surrender? All I want to do is talk to your Hokage!" Flameman boomed back. This however, got a Chunin angry.

"Like hell we'll let you near our leader!" The Chunin screamed before rushing the being, only to be grabbed by Flameman and being shown how hot his gun is to his face. The Remaining ninja were stunned at the speed that Flameman presented in disabling the Chunin.

"Tsk tsk, I only wanted a friendly chat, now it has to be a hostage situation...if you want this scum to live, you'll bring out your Hokage!" Flameman demanded of the group of shinobi.

"What is it that you want...being?" an aged voice said a few minutes later. Flameman mentally chuckled, this was all to easy!

"No, lord Hokage!" The Jounin commander said in shock. The other ninja did their own calls in trying to bring him back to safety to no avail.

"Ahahaha! Welcome to the fray, lord Hokage! I trust you know the procedure?" Flameman asked of the Sandaime.

"Of course, now release the Chunin, being, his release for my presence correct?" The Hokage said to the unholy creature.

"Of course, I'll release him...Huagh!" Flameman grunted as he threw the Chunin into a nearby building and immediately set it on fire. The action stunned the Garrison and the Hokage as Flameman quickly constructed a smaller arena of impregnable fire that most ninja had to scramble out of the way to avoid being burned alive.

"Now Hokage...its just you and me. Whoever wins, gets to rule the village, no? Let the games begin!" Flameman shouted out as he threw out a pillar of flame toward the Hokage and was shocked when a log was burning in place of a corpse.

"Kage Shuriken no juts!" The Hokage's voice rang out as hundreds of shurikens rained down upon Flameman, who used a wall of fire to deflect the incoming shuriken. It provided the necessary distraction as the Hokage powered up another move.

"Suiton: Water Dragon!" The Hokage spewed out a large amount of water before forming it into a dragon and set it to attack Flameman.

A huge burst of steam encircled the area as the nearby fires put out the burning building and allowed a couple of ninja to rescue their trapped comrade from the once burning building.

It looked like the battle was over until the Garrison and the Hokage heard a sinister chuckle.

"Hehehehe...very good, Hokage! You are certainly living up to your name as leader of the Leaf Village! But now...the games have ended and decided me the victor!"

"Your village has been deemed unholy by my judgment and has been ordered to be purified by my holy flames! I'll start with the unholiest of all, the Hokage..." Flameman's visible eyes narrowed at the Hokage, who seemed to be tired from the heat and his chakra consuming moveset.

"I will end this now! FLAMING SHURIKEN!" Flameman screamed out as he threw three giant shuriken at the Hokage, who was now accepting his defeat at the hands of this creature.

Flameman was outright laughing as the shuriken was nearing the target and cheered in victory as he heard them connect to a body and implode afterwards as a result of an extra deposit of chakra in the shuriken's throw.

It wasn't until the smoke cleared that he was shocked at the scene, so was the Hokage and the Garrisoned ninja for that mattter.

A Blue being was guarding the Hokage with his body facing the Hokage as the Shuriken fell uselessly to the ground as their job was interrupted by the newcomer.

The Hokage was shocked when he saw the being's eyes though, he thought they died a few hours ago.

"N-Naruto?"

The being shook his head.

"I am not Naruto, at least not in this form, old man." The Hokage was sure that this was Naruto, only he called him old man after all. But what was this not being Naruto in this form?

"I am not Naruto in this form, but I am a different person, a different name." Naruto continued.

"Oh? Then who are you?" The Hokage asked.

"This is my true form, Hokage, I am known as..." Naruto turned around and faced a shocked Flameman. The ninja were awed by this move as they couldn't even get a reaction out of this thing and yet this blue guy was doing it easily.

"Who the hell are you?!" Flameman screamed out in shock, as his finishing move was interrupted, he was so close!

"...I am Rockman, and this is as far as you go!" Naruto, now Rockman shouted out as he dashed toward Flameman at an incredible speed and to the stunned audience as he threw a punch and launched Flameman a clear twenty feet and continued dashing as he threw punch, after punch into Flameman's armor, denting it more and more with each hit.

"Augh! How are you doing this!?" Flameman growled out as a piece of armor was shredded by one of Rockman's attacks.

"I am more powerful than you, you freak!" Rockman shouted out as he threw another punch, sending Flameman into a nearby building. For a moment, Rockman thought that he won, until The building that Flameman was punched into combusted into rubble.

Rockman narrowed his eyes, this was a different Flameman than he encountered, for one thing, his armor was completely shed away, leaving a flaming being with two flaming hands for weapons, the only thing remotely showing his identity was his flaming hair.

"YOU HAVE ANNOYED ME ENOUGH, YOU PEST! PREPARE TO DIE!" A crazed Flameman charged at the blue being like a hell storm as nearby barrels and lampposts were incinerated by his charge.

Rockman held his ground though, and brought out his next move, or rather next weapon.

"Rockbuster!" his right hand clamped over his left hand as his left hand morphed into a barreled weapon that started to charge with a green light.

"DIEEEE!" Flameman screamed out as he neared his target and tried to dogpile him.

"Rockman no Jutsu: Rockbuster Charge Attack!" Rockman shouted out as the pulsating green buster weapon released a large ball of energy directly into Flameman's body, making Flameman scream out in pain as he was thrown back into a surprisingly untouched building and was starting to glow red for some reason to Rockman. He found out that he was trying to explode and take him with it!

"Y-YOU...WILL NOT MAKE IT OUT ALIVE! THIS CRYSTAL WILL NOT LET YOU!" Flameman tugged out a hanging crystal, which was pulsating a violent red hue and had cracks all over it.

"PREPARE TO DIE, YOU ABOMINATION! THE HOLY FLAMES WILL PURGE THIS HELLHOLE INTO MY DREAM! RAAAAaagh?" Flameman was shocked when the crystal suddenly grew dim and fell from midair to the soft dirt below.

When he looked up, the Hokage had his arm stretched out and a Kunai knife was embedded into Flameman's side.

"N-no...my power is...fading!" Flameman's form was shrinking and expanding back into his human form and it was shocking as to who was the culprit behind all this.

"It's Iruka!" A chunin shouted.

"It can't be! We took him to the hospital!" another Chunin shouted. A large murmuring ensued.

"He's gotta be a fake! Remove his Henge!"

They didn't need too as the Henge technique dissolved on its own to reveal the true culprit...

It was Mizuki, Iruka's assistant at the Ninja Academy...

"Take him into Interrogation and find out why he committed treason while trying to impersonate another person." the Hokage ordered as the Anbu gathered up the weakened Mizuki and darted off to the Anbu headquarters and the T&I department for their criminal's eventual confessions.

_Konoha, 2000_

_Hokage Tower_

The Hokage sighed as he surveyed the damage from the top floor of the minimally damaged Hokage tower and thought into how to pay enough people for their repairs...ah well, its not like they were poor anyways, what with the input of mission requests flowing lately.

He turned to see the sleeping form of Naruto as he tried to decide the boy's fate. He somehow found out that he wasn't the normal boy he tried to be all these years and somehow isn't resenting him for it. He was certain however, that he doesn't know what he _truly is_...

It was good enough for now though, he really shouldn't ever find out his origins of birth...or creation. He is happier as a human, than as to he was before so long ago...

"ah...Old man..." Naruto mumbled in his sleep as the Hokage listened intently, perhaps he had an answer in his dreams?

"...ramen!" The Hokage smiled, always ramen in his brain...he decided the boy's fate.

He has done a great service to Konoha and for that he shall be rewarded in which he deserves most.

He took down a painting and opened up a sealed safe to retrieve a slightly old headband out of it.

"Kakashi." He called out softly. A minute later, a faint chakra signature appeared behind him.

"Hai." He said quietly and his visible eye widened slightly at the old headband.

"Thats!" The Hokage silenced him with a finger to his mouth.

"He will do great things Kakashi, the only thing I can do to show support is to give him a great headband...take this to his apartment and replace it instead of the regular headband with this note from me." The Hokage scribbled a note and gave it to Kakashi, who nodded.

A few moments later, the standard blue headband was replaced by a Dark Blue headband with a note of good luck to Naruto from the Hokage. An hour later, a sleeping Naruto was put back into his room with a soft 'good night' from the Hokage and Kakashi as they left to go back to their regular lives.

_**So that ends chapter two...**_

_**Its been a while, a long while too you know, but I just didn't have the drive to write another chapter until yesterday, when I was waiting for the Red Alert 3 Uprising download and decided to go to Newgrounds Audio Portal and listen to Megaman song and came up with a megaman 9 song titled **_

"_**We are the Robots" by Masterjace.**_

_**It gave me the drive again and produced this chapter for you all.**_

_**I gave the spell check a run for its money as I used it constantly for it to read-worthy for you.**_

_**I'll try and write more often as more and more MM songs are popping up in Newgrounds and as long as they are cranking it out, I'll keep writing!**_

_**Terra Ace**_

_**Next Chapter: Teams and Tests**_


	3. Teams and Tests: The Team

Rockman Naruto – Reloaded

Chapter Three: The Team

* * *

Naruto awoke slowly the next morning, feeling a large headache from god knows where...until he remembered what happened last night and bolted up from his bed, ignoring the pain that came with it.

He remembered last night...

That strange voice...

Rockman?

Was he really a shell for the Kyuubi no Kitsune?

He tried to shut out what that fake Iruka's taunts and words were drilling into his head when he recalled Iruka's words...

"_You aren't a demon...you are human, just like me...you are Naruto...a new genin of Konoha, you can't be anything else than that...you were always saying that you wanted to be Hokage...I believed that Hokages are great beings, human or not. I know that you are human in my eyes..."_

With those words, Naruto gained back some of his failing sanity and reinforced his mind to take on another day. Naruto looked at the date today...

It was the day for team selections!

Naruto grinned widely and started to get ready for his initiation to ninjahood!

* * *

_Konoha 2000_

_Academy Entrance_

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha was walking down the road to the academy, skillfully ignoring the stampede of "stealthy" ninja wannabe fangirls. He used to be afraid of them when he was younger, but since his family and clan were massacred, he thought no more of them than the air in the world.

He was one step closer to avenging his family from that traitor, and it was always around him, the stink that tells people he is related to that traitor. Somehow, the general populace didn't despise him for it, instead, they treat him as he was the last treasure in the fucking world!

…

He hated it, he hated it all.

The only ones that didn't seem to give a damn were the Hyuuga clan, half of the ninja and Naruto Uzumaki...but he didn't count, everyone hated him for his buffoonery and overall stupidity compared to the normal idiot.

Sasuke glanced forward, never noticing he bent his head downward toward the ground to see Naruto dashing by. Normally, he wouldn't care but it wasn't everyday he was actually not screaming for attention in those stupid orange rags he calls clothes.

Today, the boy wore _blue_...

Maybe he wised up and decided to become a ninja seriously? Sasuke shook that thought away, he didn't give a damn anyway.

Sasuke tried to remember what he heard about the standards of the ninja...

He knew that they were put in groups of three, under one sensei. Who the sensei was assigned to them varied by group and year.

Trying to remember who told him that, he froze when he remembered that _he _said that to him, so long ago.

"Argh! He haunts me still to this day! Will he ever stop?" Sasuke seethed quietly, ignoring the "silent" squeals of "affection" that his oh-so stealthy fangirls were trying to do...

He continued down the road to the academy, blocking out any sayings _he_ would say to him...

Naruto Uzumaki was kinda stunned with himself when he decided out of the blue...well to wear blue.

He tried to ignore the little voice in his head screaming 'blue, blue!' when it used to scream out 'orange, orange!', but in the end after too much nagging, he gave in and looked for the most remotely blue thing he had in his closet and found something that was interesting at least, almost forgotten it was there.

A few years ago, he got a set of clothes from an anonymous donor on his birthday but it was a little too many sizes too big for his small body, but they were a rich blue color with an orange cloth inside the blue suit, the only reason that Naruto didn't throw it away was because of the orange.

Now, years later, he found that it fit him quite well and tried it on. Needless to say, he looked smashing in it, but decided to at least add some outward orange later on, but not now.

Now, all he need was his headband...wait, where was it?!

Naruto looked frantically around his room. He searched the bed, the little bookcase, even his pile of dirty laundry before gazing at the desk. On it was a note, and a slightly darker blue headband on top of it.

He picked up the note and found it was from the old man Hokage himself!

_Naruto,_

_In light of your service done for me in the dark hour yesterday evening, I decided to reward you with this very special Headband. This shows others that you have gained the appreciation of the Hokage and it will lead you to great things._

_Wear it well and proud Naruto,_

_The "Old Man" Hokage._

Naruto smiled widely when he finished reading the note, he got some good standing with the Hokage with his special alter ego last night and this Headband was supposed to symbolize the good standing he had with the Hokage, an honor in itself.

Wearing the Headband, he found that it complemented the outfit and decided to try and buy more blue things, but he would always wear orange, no matter the outfit.

Finishing up and collecting necessary gear before he left, he walked out into his balcony, and smiled for his first day as Genin Naruto, an official Ninja of the Leaf Village.

Sakura was walking down the commercial area to the academy with a hint of pride in her step. While her parents were confused at her choice to become a ninja, they were nonetheless proud that their only daughter had passed with flying colors. Her father was praising her achievements and boasting that she'll be able to become one of the best ninja in the village.

Her mother was fretting over her and telling her to pack extra medical things like bandages and gauzes with her every time. Of course, she was always a worrywart to the point where she was annoying, but Sakura loved her the same each time.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost run into her rival, Ino Yamanaka.

"Watch it, Forehead!" Ino said with her eyes half lidded, as if she was mocking her sense of detection. Continuing on, she added.

"If you can't even watch where you're going, I guess I have to rethink on how you ever passed the academy and actually become a ninja in first place!" Ino finished with a laugh.

Sakura growled, this had gone past the civil line and into touchy territory. She knew she was from a civilian family, but Ino rarely ever went that far in their arguments.

"What do you want Ino? Don't you know the retirement home is thataway?" Sakura pointed toward the opposite direction of the academy, to where some elderly people were fighting about something. Ino glared, her age was a level five security secret! Even though she was the same age as Sakura.

Suddenly, Ino flipped her pony tail in Sakura's direction and scoffed.

"I don't have time to deal with you, I am heading to the academy for my team placement. I just _know_ I'm getting placed with Sasuke-kun!" Ino said with a dreamy finish. Sakura glared at her rival's bimbo attitude.

"Oh no! I'm getting the place with Sasuke-kun! I'll prove it!" Sakura declared. Ino laughed, now this was interesting!

"And how are you going to do that, Forehead?" Ino taunted. Sakura was startled a bit, but Ino didn't notice.

"Um...ah I know! I heard that they place teammates by order in which they get there!" Sakura said as she started to walk faster than her regular pace. A few seconds later and a shout of "What?!" Ino was walking even faster than Sakura in her bid to become Sasuke's teammate.

The general populace was confused when a dust cloud zoomed past by them with two glaring girls making the cloud just by speed walking all the way to the academy...

* * *

_Konoha, 2000_

_Academy Entrance_

* * *

Naruto was slightly trailing in front of Sasuke toward the classroom for the last time as a student, having stopped running a while back. He stopped in front of the classroom door, remembering all the hell he caused here before his apparent success at the final exam the other day.

He would have continued on with a flashback montage if not for Sasuke pushing him out of the way and entering the classroom without so much as an "excuse me!" to him.

"Hey! What the hell, bastard?!" Naruto shouted at him before coming up to the door again. He was about to open it when he felt a faint rumbling. He looked around to see a glaring Ino and Sakura mad dashing toward him...toward him?

"Wha-" Naruto couldn't even say anything as he was violently launched toward the end of the hall by the sheer force of Ino's and Sakura's strength of their mad dash for god knows what reason to Naruto. He probably guessed it was something to do with Sasuke though...

Grumbling in his mind, Naruto just took the first seat available to him, ignoring the world around him as he thought back to last night.

Who was he? What was he? Naruto pondered these questions with uncharacteristic seriousness. For twelve years, he thought that he was a normal kid, with an abnormal life. He was glared at, hurt even by some of Konoha's supposedly upstanding citizens. Even with complaints against them to the local police division, the civilians always had better credibility with some of the most outlandish bullshit they spewed out of their mouths.

He didn't know why, but he surely found out last night.

He was a container for the most fearsome monster in the world, the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The thought alone might've been enough to shatter his mind, but he was always strong willed and a second revelation shocked him.

Despite his "Demonic" origins, he was also given the "True Form" power that Flameman boasted he had, the Rockman Form as he had come to call it. It was almost ironic, really.

A demon with a hero's form? So preposterous, but it was true.

Naruto grinned slightly at the irony. He also wondered if that was true? Was he really a container? Hell, if not for Iruka's sayings, he would've kept questioning if he was human at all when that fake Iruka told him of what he was!

It was then when he felt the "million deaths" glare in large quantities directed at him and he looked around in reality for the first time.

Naruto almost fidgeted when almost all of the females in the room started to glare at him and he had no idea why, well not for long as he turned around and saw why.

He was sitting to Sasuke Uchiha...oh.

Not seeing another seat that wasn't surrounded by glaring girls, he stayed put and held his ground (and his seat) by looking somewhere else.

Seconds later, a body had sat next to him and he turned around again to see the girls' glares had faded away and were doing whatever they did during the day. He also noticed that Sakura was sitting next to him, not looking at him, per say, but almost looking through him. Probably fantasizing with what to do with boy wonder next to him.

When he was younger, Naruto had a large crush on Sakura, back when she was seen by him being bullied by an older girl that he couldn't remember what her name was nowadays. He wanted to go help her up, but by then, his instincts were more jaded and were telling him that she was like the rest, hating him for reasons unknown to him.

His indecisiveness allowed a short haired girl that would later be known as Ino to help her up and shared a tight bond that would be loosened heavily by Sasuke later on. That was the start of a drastic transformation of the girl. She became shy and sweet and open...to taunting, amorous and generally ambitious, all for the Sasuke dream.

As soon as she started changing from the sweet shy girl he was attracted to in his boyhood, to a completely unrecognizable fangirl, well he started to see her kinda differently.

Of course, he tried so hard to find the qualities she had so long ago, but after an especially hard scene he had to watch her do, he gave up in a sense.

Naruto shook his head, that wasn't a memory he liked going back to at all...

Of course, he might've held old feelings for Sakura, but she wasn't his Sakura. Then came another thing, something that never really went away from him.

The reputation of being Sakura's "fanboy" never really went away from the school's chatterboxes and gossipers in the years after his decision, so practically everyone thought he still had the hots for Sakura.

Eventually, a teacher's assistant came in with a list of names in his hand. He didn't seem too noteworthy, as he had plain brown hair in a short style cut. He didn't wear any Chunin rank vest or uniform, so must've been a civilian equivalent of the ninja teacher.

"Attention! Today, you are here to learn your team number and team members. Listen up for your name and your team." The somewhat stuffy aide said. With his non-so-happy attitude towards them, he probably was a ninja dropout or something.

"Team One..." He began and Naruto tuned him out. All he needed was his name and then he'll wake up.

The teacher droned on and on when he started sneering all of a sudden. Naruto took it as his customary greeting by the local populace and came to the conclusion that he was next.

Rather than announcing the demon's name, he skipped over his team and continued on, naming the next team's arrangement.

Naruto's eyes narrowed, he was sure that he was next, and now because of his "evil origins", his team was probably skipped over for others.

"Team Eight is..." The man started to say when a voice interrupted him. A voice that surprised Naruto, as he thought he was still in the hospital with that injury.

"Excuse me, Hadara, but what about Team Seven?"

The teacher's assistant was also surprised that Iruka was there, in crutches maybe, but for all things concerning, he seemed all right.

"Again, Hadara...what about Team Seven?" Iruka asked the paling teacher's assistant, eyes narrowing as he tried to justify himself with mutterings of demon and his hypnotized team of minions.

"Thank you, you may be excused, Hadara. I will file a complaint on your performance today, goodbye." Iruka said before shutting the door on the stammering aide. After breathing and counting to ten seconds, he faced the confused class.

"Ah, sorry, he's a bit of a newbie, so he doesn't know the routine well. Now, lets see...Team Seven. The team members are...Sasuke Uchiha." No more than five seconds than that Sasuke's name left Iruka mouth did the entire Sasuke fanbase leaned over their desks and listened intently for their name to go with him.

It didn't seem like it, but the boys were interested too, who would work with the prodigy of their year was an interesting subject on this day. Naruto was eager, but for a different reason.

He did NOT want to be on the bastard's team, it was cruel, it was inhumane, it was-

"Naruto Uzumaki..."

It was right within his luck...damn it...

The boys soon grew disinterested once again, seeing that the usual formula was boy, girl, boy.

Naruto groaned, and Sasuke didn't seem to change emotion any time soon either.

"The last member of Team Seven will be..." Iruka trailed off to the agony of the waiting fanbase, it was complete torture in their minds. Questions were running rampant. Would they be the lucky girl? Would they scorn or praise the chosen one? Will being on the same team mean total harmony with the handsome boy?

Sakura was praying to the gods that Iruka will name her and Ino was closing his eyes with her fingers crossed saying her name rapidly.

"Sakura Haruno." Iruka finished with a smirk. Almost all of the adjacent classrooms and even further still heard a shriek of happiness and several screams of disappointment and crying all around for the girls that weren't picked already in other teams.

Naruto was sure the sheer volume would leave the guys deaf for quite some time, what with Kiba Inuzuka looking like someone used a high pitched sound to his enhanced hearing is by any scale. The poor kid was writhing on the floor. It was rather amusing to watch, Naruto thought idly.

"Now, Team Eight will be...will someone pick Kiba up from the floor? He really shouldn't be on that dirty floor..." Iruka said concernedly. A few moments later, Kiba was picked up from the floor by a coat wearing boy and was quietly thanked by the usually loud boy.

"Thank you Shino, you are showing teamwork already, as Team Eight will be Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuuga!" Iruka said cheerfully. The three aforementioned students looked at each other and nodded, well Kiba and Shino nodded, Hinata just looked dejected for some reason...

"Team Nine will be Osamu Bika, Abumi Shelko, and Kenji Komuri." Iruka kept going on as three non descriptive students looked for their teammates.

"Team Ten will be Chouji Akimichi..." A rather portly young boy shifted to pause in his snack munching to listen up for his teammates...he had already a good guess that his buddy will be with him anyways.

"Shikamaru Nara..." Iruka continued on. Shikamaru Nara barely shifted in his sleep to acknowledge his team placement as Iruka continued.

Ino sighed, her luck couldn't be any crappier. She lost to Sakura in the race, and now she wasn't in Sasuke-kun's team! What next?! She being on Shikamaru's team?!

"And Ino Yamanaka!"

Ino cursed the man, and damned her luck forever to be bad. Ino just put her head down and tried to forget this ever happened. Maybe she is having a bad dream?

Ino pinched herself.

The pain was there, so nope! This was real...

"Well, thats it! You will be contacted by your Jounin Sensei later on in the day, so class dismissed. Oh, forgot one thing, your sensei's will be expecting you in this room, so come back in at least half an hour from now." Iruka waved goodbye and left the room, probably going back to the hospital for his injuries.

The room was silent until a few of the earlier teams' members left the classroom, probably to get to know each other more. Team Eight, Team Ten and Team Seven however, were talking among themselves however and sometimes with each other as well for the wait.

It was until Kiba broke the ice on Naruto's new clothes did things get slightly interesting.

"So, Naruto...whats with the new clothes? Finally found out that Orange was completely stupid for a ninja?" Kiba said with a large smirk. Naruto just narrowed his eyes, no one...absolutely no one knocks Orange!

"Hey! Don't knock Orange, bone breath!" Naruto shouted and a glare fest erupted between Kiba and Naruto, but to the rest, it was a common scene, given their somewhat unusual rivalry.

"I-I think that Naruto looks really nice in his new clothes..." Hinata softly said as she started to blush while looking away from Naruto, who really did look handsome in his new clothes.

"Well, yeah, he looks kind of decent in his new clothes. At least he tried to improve Kiba, he will be harder to spot while your terrible smell will alert the Stone Village even if they were wearing nose plugs!" Ino laughed as Kiba tried to discretely smell himself. Surely he didn't smell that bad...could he?

Soon, everyone's stomach gave them the silent signal that it was lunchtime and everyone departed to eat, presumably together.

Naruto thought about asking Sakura to lunch to try and clear up about his feelings for her but thought better of it, she probably bought that he was her number one fan and tried to ask her out in disguise.

"So...want to get some lunch?" Naruto asked openly, he figured that a group invitation was better and he could try and talk to Sakura about it better. Of course, he was expecting them to reject him so he wasn't too surprised when they did so.

Sasuke just walked off without a word or even acknowledging that he heard Naruto and left to wherever he usually ate. Sakura couldn't resist rejecting him more personally however.

Sakura just knew this was a ploy to get her to ask her out on a date! She just knew it! She wasn't deaf, she heard from everyone that he had a major crush on her and was constantly stalking her! Sure, she had no proof of him ever stalking her, but eyewitness accounts from her friends were surely more credible than proof, right?

Still, it was kind of sweet...she knew that it began when they were much smaller and not just instantly like her friends were saying it happened. She sensed someone nearby when she was smaller and got a glimpse of a younger him trying to approacher her, but was scared of her for some reason. It was all for naught when Ino came to her and she promptly forgot all about his advances for friendship from him, relying on word of mouth to guide her judgment.

counting that, she civilly rejected him for what she believed to be the final time.

"Naruto, I know that you like me, but I just don't feel the same way. I like someone else and I hope that you don't ever bother me again with these type of things. I'm sorry, but you are just being annoying with your attempts recently." Sakura walked out of the room and hoped she could catch up to Sasuke-kun, her rejection speech already fading from her mind.

Naruto stood stock still at her rejection. It seemed that irony loved playing in his yard because change a few words, it was almost the exact same speech he wanted to give to her.

Guess the grapevine took a stronger hold on her than he thought, but in the end it was for the best as well, not counting the faint pain he suddenly felt in his heart...

Sighing in relief and a bit in hurt, he left towards his favorite Ramen place, Ichirakus...

In the shadows, A tall man was looking at the scene in sadness. This was going to be hard for his team to pass at all, given that they weren't connecting very well at all from what he saw right now...

Naruto returned to the classroom, angry at that fake Iruka even more so. The bastard just had to make it personal, didn't he?

Reason? He burned down the restaurant that he usually ate in just for kicks! Ichiraku was sitting by the wreckage drinking heavily and his daughter Ayame was crying over discovering the horrible scene.

After promising Ayame and her father to do everything he can to help rebuild the restaurant, he ran back to the academy, before realizing he was still hungry and the time limit was almost up, hence his mood right now.

He came face to face with Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke was the same as usual and Sakura was looking a bit sad at him somehow, probably trying to correct her wording, Naruto concluded.

Well, what was said was said, hindsight was always 20/20 after all...

Naruto internally sighed, maybe he would hear her out, but right now wasn't a good time.

"Where's everyone?" Naruto asked the duo. Sasuke looked at him blandly before answering.

"Where do you think? Everyone left with their sensei and ours hasn't arrived yet." Sasuke looked away after that, seemingly to ponder something deep and strong. Sakura tried to get his attention to no avail, just like always. She tried to say something to Naruto, but seemed to think better of it, to the relief of Naruto.

He wasn't sure he could hold back in his tired and hungry state.

One hour had passed and still no teacher for them, could he probably be running late? They thought unanimously.

Two hours had passed and Naruto was getting annoyed, Sakura still had hope that their teacher was busy and Sasuke didn't seem to know that time had passed.

Three hours had passed and Naruto was getting close to going ballistic. Sakura gave up hope and started to glower at the door as if willing her teacher here by mind power. Sasuke was barely starting to get annoyed himself.

Finally after five whole hours, Naruto lost it and started to twitch madly in hunger and anger. Sakura seemed to go perfectly still and Sasuke was outright scowling at the clock.

The negative feelings suddenly evaporated when they heard the door opening and a man entered the classroom.

He was a rather tall man, well tall enough without the gravity defying silver hair anyway. He seemed to have a lazy look in his eye, as most of his face was covered by a lower face cloth mask and his left eye was covered by a slanted Headband. He was wearing what they considered to be Jounin uniform wear, so this was probably their teacher...

He didn't seem like much, but he probably didn't reach Jounin rank by being lazy like he was being now, so they gave him a bit of respect.

The man looked around, as if searching for something. Then he called out to the near empty classroom.

"Team Seven?" The three people just glared, that little bit of respect they had for the guy was rapidly dwindling into nonexistant.

A few minutes later after searching the room, his gaze laid upon them.

"Oh! There you are!" The man exclaimed happily.

Yep...reaching rock bottom fast...

"Well...my first impression of you is..." He looked at them appraisingly. His plummeting respect paused for a moment to see what he would say next.

"Hm...I don't like you at all..." The lazy looking man said with such conviction that if you would closely hear in the silence, you would hear a glass crack and shatter as his student's respect of the man just imploded on the spot.

The man smiled, or his eye smiled as he cheerfully told them to head to the roof in five minutes. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke only reeled in the irony of that order...irony indeed.

Five minutes later, on the spot, the three arrived on top of the roof to find their teacher reading a strange orange book. Sakura had no idea what it was and Sasuke could really care less about it but Naruto instantly recognize the book and its cover.

A local bookstore had it on display as book of the month, despite its 18+ warning. Naruto just thought that the whole adult population was perverted if it that book of all things had that title.

"Ah...you guys are here, good!" The man said after five minutes of reading the book in their presence. He put the book away but kept leaning on the rail as they found him while he was reading the book earlier.

"You guys are Team Seven and I would like to be your teacher, but I don't know you at all. So lets start with introductions! Who wants to go first?" He asked while extending his palm toward his students as a cue to begin.

Sakura looked confused and raised her hand. The man pointed to her enthusiastically, a complete one eighty from his lazy look.

"Yes?"

Sakura bit her lip, unsure of how to proceed.

"Um...what do you want to know from us?" She asked finally. The man frowned a bit before answering.

"Well...that was a bit of an odd introduction Miss Um..." Sakura started to glare at him, which made no effect on the man, but he faked it anyways.

"Ok...ok, I'm joking! I just wanted to know your likes, dislikes and dreams. You know, the basic stuff!" Kakashi said with an eye smile. Sakura seemed to be pacified and began to speak again

"My name is Sakura Haruno, I like...flowers and someone...I dislike my rival, Ino and my dreams of the future..." Sakura trailed off blushing and Naruto swore that he saw the old Sakura there for a second before shaking his head and thought it was because of the Uchiha.

"Ok, who's next?" The man asked of the two boys.

Sasuke went next.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha." He paused, as if he needed an introduction, when the whole damn village knew his name and clan.

"I don't have many likes and I have even less dislikes. My dream is to exact vengeance on one particular man..." Sasuke trailed off and looked away.

The man shrugged and thought he was finished. He pointed at Naruto at last.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I like Ramen, ninja techniques and..." Naruto trailed off and pointedly looked away from Sakura, who also looked away, but Sasuke and the man could see a very, very minuscule blush on Sakura's face.

Naruto continued with his intro.

"I like reading, um...I dislike late people." He glared at the amused man.

"My dreams..." Now Naruto was at a crossroads. Before, he would have said that his dream was to be Hokage and that was that, but after last night...well what could he say?

Best go with option one.

"My dream is to become Hokage!" Naruto said with confidence, not saying his ulterior dream of finding out what the hell was he for real. The man stared at him before turning his attention to the three of them.

"Well, now that the introductions are out of the way. I have some bad news for you all." The man said to them.

"Wait a tic, who are you?" Naruto asked the man. The man seemed to roll his eye as if he forgot something.

"Ah, I knew I forgot something! You don't know who I am, do you?" He asked his students. Seeing their patronizing looks, he continued.

"My name is Kakashi, Kakashi Hatake. My likes are none of your business, my dislikes would not interest you at all...and my dreams...well I forgot what they are!" He said rather cheerfully at that part.

His students stared at him incredulity, there was no way this guys could pull that off...lo behold, he did.

"Now, before I was so rudely interrupted, I've got some bad news...and worse news." Kakashi said with an eye smile. The students looked at each other and thought the same thing, there was worse news?

"The Bad news is that you guys have graduated and become Genin." Kakashi said with a tone of utter seriousness. Something that ticked off Team Seven.

"The worse news is that you are technically not ninja...huh...I wonder if that qualifies as good news?" Kakashi wondered to himself as his students were steadily getting pissed off at him.

"Well, whatever! In order to become my students and becoming actual ninja, you have to pass my test first." Kakashi said after they almost blew their top with him. Naruto and Sasuke were interested to say the least. Sakura...not so much.

"Wait...I thought the final exam was the test to become ninja?" Sakura questioned Kakashi, who sighed.

"I really wish they would stop hyping up the academy test as the ultimate test...makes my job harder to break but surprisingly easy to do." Kakashi muttered to himself.

"No, that was just the potential test. Kinda like the grass cutter does to weeds, the potential test cuts the people going nowhere fast and keeps the worthy onto the reserve, where we, the Jounin Sensei, get assigned to each group of three to try and chop up even more losers and finally bring in nine of the best of the graduating class." Kakashi finished to the shocked looks of his students.

Naruto whistled, it was dog eat dog right about now...

"So, if you can pass my test faster than the others, you become part of the regular ninja rank and file. So, I'd try my hardest to pass the test if I were you." Kakashi said. Sakura raised her hand and looked nervous for some reason.

"What about the people who don't pass as fast?" She asked her would be teacher. Kakashi shrugged.

"I dunno, I don't tend to care what happens to them but I heard that they either go back to the academy, or drop out and become regular civilians." Kakashi looked at the sky, it was nearing sunset and he could see from the corner of his eye that Sakura was slightly shivering from the cold air settling in.

"Because its so late, I'll withhold the test for tomorrow morning. I'll just give you some..rules I guess." Kakashi paused before continuing.

"First off, its a no holds bar test and you have at least until noon tomorrow but I'm not telling you any more than that, or it'll ruin the surprise!" Kakashi said before gripping the rails that lined the academy roof.

"Oh yeah...forgot one thing." Kakashi added as his students looked at him expectantly.

"Whats that?" Naruto asked.

"Don't eat breakfast tomorrow." Kakashi said seriously.

"Why not?" Sakura asked, confused at her teacher's instructions.

"You'll just throw it up and it probably wouldn't be a pretty sight if you do." Kakashi said before flipping over the rail. Startled at his action, the three students looked over, expecting his corpse on the ground, but saw only a fading poof of smoke and the echoing words.

"Be at training ground seven at six AM!"

Their teacher was a complete lunatic, they concluded.

It was early evening and Naruto was hungry. He parted ways with Sakura and Sasuke after Kakashi left almost immediately after Sasuke left without a word to either of them. Sakura was about to follow him, but she left the other way, saying that her parents were expecting her around this time.

Naruto wasn't sure about that, but he left soon after and tried to find a place to eat while Ichiraku's was being rebuilt from the ground up after that freak's attack.

Heh, if he didn't find a place soon, he wouldn't have to worry about breaking Kakashi's no Breakfast rule.

He was so immersed with his thoughts that he bumped into someone. Naruto turned to apologize when he recognized the person.

"Sakura?"

"Naruto?"

The two people were looking shocked at finding each other here and didn't know what to do next.

"What are you doing here Naruto?" Sakura asked after an awkward moment. Naruto grinned a bit before answering.

"Just looking for a place to eat. What about you? Aren't your parents worried that you are out here?" Naruto asked Sakura, who only shook her head.

"My parents are out for the evening, they left a note saying that they went to eat somewhere and left some money for me to go eat out." Sakura showed him an envelope full of money with the scribble "to eat" on the envelope itself.

"Know any good place to eat? My place...is unavailable right now." Naruto asked with a small smile, remembering his promise to his friend Ayame. Sakura thought for a bit before nodding.

"Yeah, I think I know a place, follow me." She said and left at a slow place for Naruto to catch up. To the regular passerby, they would've thought that Naruto and Sakura were on their first date or something.

* * *

_Konoha, 2000_

_Imabatsu Sushi_

Naruto was eating like no tomorrow. This wasn't ramen, but he wouldn't be picky about food right about now. Sakura was looking at him bemusedly at his antics, but was concentrating on her own dish of great sushi.

After they were done, Sakura allowed Naruto to walk her home, as the nightlife was kicking up and some of the more...unruly events of Konoha nightlife in the commercial zone started to appear on the roads.

Sakura was at a dilemma, and didn't know what to do. She wanted to talk to him about what happened earlier today but couldn't muster up the courage to start.

"Hey Sakura." Naruto's voice startled her thoughts. She looked up to see a serious Naruto, something that interested her, as his normal antics made him look like a goofball who was always smiling and landing into mischief.

"I wanted to talk about something, something that happened today. I thought I could ignore it because it had the desired result, but its been nagging at me all-" Naruto was suddenly cut off by Sakura, as her start up conversation was started by her target.

"Actually Naruto, I wanted to talk to you about it, all afternoon actually." Sakura began before turning away to look at the moon. Their legs automatically steered them to an empty bench in the middle of the commercial sector, but they could clearly hear each other despite the noise around themselves.

"Oh? What is it, Sakura?" Naruto asked, wondering where this was going. He was rather curious about it as well.

"I wanted to apologize for how I acted today, Naruto." Sakura was saying that as she felt a weight begin to lift. It was freeing her, so to speak.

Now that caught Naruto by surprise. He was expecting something like how he was a brat and immature or something that Sakura would say nowadays to him. To see the vulnerability of Sakura like this and the "non-date" they shared tonight was certainly surprising to him.

"You know the saying, " Wait till you get a taste of your own medicine"? Well, I was fed a chock full of it today." Sakura continued, her voice seemingly getting fragile.

"It was after I rejected you that I asked Sasuke-kun on a date to go get some lunch with him. He said no but started talking about you. He was commenting on your achievements and faults and somehow I started talking about how you have no rules to live by and how you were lucky to have no parents to boss you around when I was given a huge reality check." Sakura said to the frowning Naruto, he calmed himself by saying to himself that she was apologizing to him.

"He told me, "You could never understand how he feels...to have no one to call family for his own, to have no one boss you around, to have someone guide you, he has none of that. You sit here talking about how annoying he is, but look at yourself Sakura, YOU are annoying!" before walking off." Sakura was starting to tear up at Sasuke's words.

Naruto suddenly felt like punching the guy for making her cry for some reason, he didn't know why though but chalked it up to his old feelings.

"The worst part of it, though, is that he's right! I am annoying, I was being such a hypocrite when I rejected you, Naruto. I went with rumors and people's sayings about you when making my opinions about you and I totally deserved what I got in the end." Sakura was softly crying at this but her eyes held relief in them, as if they were itching her to no end to get this out of her body for good.

Sakura stood up and in front of Naruto, she bowed down low to Naruto and spoke.

"I am so sorry, Naruto, please forgive me!" She said with teardrops falling from her closed eyes to the ground below. Naruto was touched by this and was happy that his old Sakura was there, kicking and fighting her way out of the mask she constructed for herself. Seeing only one choice, he smiled and put his hands on her shoulders to upright her and said one thing.

"You're forgiven, Sakura-chan." Naruto smiled warmly and Sakura thought it was the most natural smile he could ever do. Not at all like the big grins he would always put on for the public...it almost felt like it was her own personal smile, she thought with a blush.

Sakura-chan...she remembered that he always called her that until about a year ago when he suddenly stopped but kept trying to talk to her anyway. It wasn't completely bad, but it wasn't good either. To hear it again...

It felt good...kinda.

After continuing down the path to her home, Naruto was seeing Sakura shiver from this unusually cold night and did what any gentleman would do, give his coat to her. She was surprised, but accepted the new warmth immediately with a "thanks."

After bidding farewell to Sakura, Naruto went home, all the while smiling at this surprising turn of events before realizing he never asked for his coat back. He didn't want to bother her, so he continued on home for the night, he'll ask her for it tomorrow after they pass their sensei's test together.

Up on the rooftops, Kakashi let out a low whistle. Naruto may be dense, but he can be a smooth operator when he needs to be. He originally trailed them both to see if they would try to make up for that scene in the afternoon, but he wasn't expecting for an apology to become a date so quick.

Looking for a nice corner with plenty of lighting, he gazed down at his favorite book while chuckling at the turn of events. Looks like he'll have an interesting set of hopefuls this year.

Maybe he should go the extra mile and pull out all the stops for them to become ninja? He'll have to think about that...

_**Well, thats part one of the "Teams and Tests" arc I've planned for right now. I'm hoping to get the second part up in about three to four days tops while I try and sort out all this free time I've suddenly gotten from waiting for some late spring classes to start.**_

_**No music recommendation today as I haven't heard many good ones lately but there is one, however, I can't remember what it is right now.**_

_**I'll post it up around next chapter.**_

_**Hope you guys have been listening to my recommendations about songs I've listened that has inspired me, but hey, they are only recommendations and not demands, right?**_

_**I'll see you all later,**_

_**Terra Ace**_


	4. Teams and Tests: The Test

Rockman Naruto: Reloaded

Chapter Four: The Test

It was the break of dawn as the three members of Team Seven woke up from their respective beds in anticipation for the test their sensei was bound to give them. It would be the hardest test they were ever given, thats for sure!

Sasuke had about an eager face mixed with fierce determination about the test as he traveled to his scheduled meeting place. He would show his teacher that he was worthy of teaching to, and it would give him all the knowledge he needed to smite the traitor from the face of the earth.

He didn't know about the other two, but this was one thing he would do alone and garner the favor of the teacher as his most worthy pupil.

Naruto was yawning as he tiredly traveled toward his destination, and his hunger hasn't helped so far in keeping him awake. He tried to find a good area to eat some breakfast before remembering that he couldn't eat breakfast and he couldn't find any areas that were open this early in the morning.

Passing by the Commercial sector, he saw the time and he barely registered it before walking onwards once again.

5:30 AM

Sakura was trying to stay awake in front of her mirror as she used both her hands to gently slap herself awake like she always saw her dad do when she was younger. It was supposed to make you alert and awake, but so far...nada.

Taking a look at her alarm clock, she decided to forget trying to do what her dad did, and just hoped that the cool air would wake her up.

Kakashi was many things. He was a ninja of great renown, he was a major pervert, and he was one of the most laid back, lazy looking, and all around tardy bastard of a person Konoha ever had the pleasure of having in service to them.

He woke up with sharp look to his face before calming himself down. He had that dream again...

* * *

_Konoha, 1988_

_Undisclosed Location_

It was that time where it could almost be a scene from hell. Fires were eating away at the local tree shrouds, making for an unstoppable wildfire, and the sounds of humans screaming and dying.

This was Kakashi's world.

It was only months after Konoha's victory over Iwa, the Stone Village, and their reckless land grab war that resulted in thousands dead and their tails between their legs. However, where there should have been celebrations, there was more horror.

The Kyuubi had come into the fray, with all his nine tails with it.

As Kakashi was being beaten down by a simple tail flick when he tried to jump into the air with a Raikiri Technique aimed for the beast's body, he began having flashbacks of his fallen teammates.

Obito Uchiha, the only person that Kakashi could gladly call his friend saved his life from being crushed with a giant boulder.

Rin...went missing in action after a bold infiltration assault by Iwa's ally, the Cloud Village, Kumo. She was feared dead, turned over or was put into a breeding program for any possible bloodlines hidden in her blood as Konoha seemed to be popping up new bloodlines almost every year or so.

As soon as he hit the dirt floor, he was sure he heard a summoning technique near him before losing unconsciousness.

The strange part about that dream was that he already saw the Yondaime summon Gamabunta, the frog boss summon and that his dreams that day were the soothing kind, despite the carnage going around him...

Kakashi shook his head, there was no way that last part was real, it just couldn't be.

Sighing at crazy ass dreams, he looked at the alarm clock.

6:15 AM...

Ah well, he could sleep another 3 hours until he meets his team and have a really nice breakfast afterwards!

Before closing his eyes, he stopped for a brief moment, remembering something.

Did they take his last words seriously? They must've known that no reasonable human being would skip out on breakfast, especially as early as six AM...that, and they must've known that it was a little unofficial rule that their first day doesn't start till nine...It was done in the Yondaime's day, so it should've applied here...

He really should learn to communicate more often...

* * *

_Konoha 2000_

_Training ground 7_

Team seven's stomachs unanimously rumbled with betrayal and hunger as their master's emotions were set on Glower mode. Their teacher will pay...he will pay oh so dearly...

* * *

_Konoha 2000_

_Training ground 7 : 9 AM_

Kakashi came up to the meeting spot filled with food, a good mood and well rested to see a trio of cold, hungry and angry students-to-be. If he were a lesser ninja, the sheer amount of pressure that the glares combined at him would be tantamount to a D-rank missing ninja's Killing Intent. Slightly impressive, but not enough to make him do anything embarrassing.

He did chuckle though, and the pressure increased just a little more.

"Good morning student wannabes! Ready for your test to Genin?" Kakashi asked as the glares stopped and each one nodded, glad to have something else to think about than their hungry stomachs.

Pulling a set of bells out of his pouch on his vest, he dangled them in front of the trio, watching them become curious about them.

"There are two bells, and your job is to get them off my belt, by any means necessary." Kakashi explained, making them chime with clarity as to drive home the objective to the students.

Naruto eyed those bells with a frightening hunger...or he just might be hungry, Kakashi couldn't tell which.

Sakura was more easier to read, she was clearly hungry, but her eyes followed the bells from left to right.

Sasuke seemed to be the most focused, forgoing hunger with such ferocity in light of his new objective...almost an obsession in his eyes.

Kakashi mentally frowned, such determination is praised upon, but not in this case...

Nevertheless, he forged on with his plan.

"Alright, you have until I say start..." He took out a large alarm clock, complete with large bells. "Until this alarm clock rings. I'll set it to noon, so you have your time limit." Kakashi paused as he began to set the clock.

Naruto saw this as an signal to win the bells early, and snuck behind the busy teacher to the tune of waiting breaths of his teammates.

As soon he made the lunge for the bells though, Kakashi grabbed his reaching arm and pinned him hard to the ground with his knee on Naruto's back, Naruto's arm stretched painfully outwards, where Kakashi was gripping it with surprising force.

Instead of being angry, Kakashi eye-smiled.

"Ah, sneaky group aren't you? Well, I haven't said begin yet, but it was a good try. I think I might see you guys differently now." Kakashi said, albeit mockingly, but also slightly proud.

"Ok, everything is set, and we can finally start. Everyone ready?" Kakashi asked, and all three students tensed up for the go ahead.

"Set?" Kakashi drawled out, as if making tension. All three students gulped in anticipation...

"GO!" Kakashi barked out and all three students disappeared from his vision, but not his senses as he felt all three signatures in the trees, in the bushes...

and right in front of him?

Kakashi looked forward to see Naruto in front of him, grinning cockily and looking at the bells on his beltline.

Kakashi sighed, there is always one of these in every team. Best humor them, before delivering a smackdown to their brains.

"So, I take it you're first? And here I thought you would have learned something from last night..." Kakashi muttered, but Naruto caught it.

"What? What does last night have to do with anything...have you been spying on us?!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke didn't seem fazed, but Sakura flushed a light pink, as if last night's events caught up with her.

"Why, no, it was just coincidence that I was passing through the commercial sector and was following you at a safe distance. Total coincidence." Kakashi said casually to an infuriated Naruto.

_'I wonder...will you show your full hand to me, Naruto? Or is your mind sharper than that?'_ Kakashi thought as he got his answer.

"Time to show you my attack! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted as he formed 50 clones that to Sasuke and Sakura's viewpoint, didn't seem to differ from the regular bunshin, except for a few word changes.

"Kage Bunshin? Lets see what you do with them, Naruto." Kakashi said seriously, but his actions seemed to tell Naruto otherwise. He was relaxed, limbs loose, and his eye was somewhere else.

Naruto growled.

"Make fun of me, will ya?! Lets go, fellas!" Naruto called out the charge as all of his clones rushed at the teacher, intent on beating him to the ground.

The following would make Sakura and in retrospect, make Sasuke wince for a couple of days.

Kakashi, for all his lazy attitudes, was not a lazy ninja in skill. He grabbed the closest Naruto clone and launched it a delta formed group of clones and made them poof out of existence with a single flick of the clone.

The next Naruto clone, who tried to kick him in the head was thrown high into the air and looked like it wasn't coming down soon, which gave him enough time to sucker punch another clone and to mule kick a sneaking clone behind him.

Basically, it was a massacre of clones and the finale was yet to come.

Naruto, the original Naruto that is, was a tiny bit scared at the Jounin's ability. He took out his clone brigade in less than five minutes.

Having no choice, he considered resorting to his true form, only to pale.

He didn't know how to activate it!

Kakashi took Naruto's pause to get behind him and speak menacingly at the startled blond.

"You really shouldn't let people get behind you Naruto, and for that you'll get a lesson in Taijutsu I like to call..." he formed a seal.

Sakura gasped, he wasn't about to burn him alive, was he?!

"THOUSAND YEARS OF PAIN!"

Naruto howled in pain as two fingers coated in chakra poked...at his butt. Normally, it would be very creepy, but in this case, it was both creepy and painful.

Sakura and Sasuke looked a bit green from their teacher's antics and hoped to god that it wouldn't happen to them.

A loud splash signaled that Naruto landed in the river, and painfully if the split second groan of pain that was covered by the water splash was any indication.

Kakashi calmly stood up and clearly said...

"Next?"

Sakura shuddered...this was going to hard...

While Kakashi was entertaining his two remaining targets, Naruto was making a plan of his own.

Naruto's solitary clone finally landed in the water after spending so much time in the air giving Naruto the distraction to hide away back in the woods on the other side of the river.

He had to get those bells, but he also wanted to have Sakura-chan pass with him...what to do...?

Furthermore, he had to figure out how to access his Rockman Form again, it would really be useful right about now, but he didn't know how...he wondered if he could ever use it again?

Shaking his head, Naruto began planning with what he had here and now, inaccessible powers did no one good in the thick of things.

Sasuke was awed by the strength that his soon-to-be teacher was showing off. He was making this look effortless, and it was positive that it was taking little effort on his part.

All his tactics, seen through.

All his punches, blocked while reading that book from yesterday.

All his kicks, the same.

Sasuke shook his head and began his assault once more, this time, he will get those bells and secure apprenticeship to him!

Sakura however, was trying to find Naruto by the river.

She wasn't known as the smartest female student in the academy for nothing, and got an idea that unknowingly for her paralleled Kakashi's intended result.

She had to work together with someone, but she would only be a hindrance to Sasuke-kun, so it would be in the team's best interest to recover Naruto and work together to get a bell.

Still, something about this test felt off for her, as if telling her that the answer was the most obvious way to do it, but it just wasn't reaching her brain.

Shrugging it off, she continued in her search for Naruto...

Kakashi looked not the least bit tired as he continued reading, his past training was more intense than this joke attempt, so he wasn't too worried about his stamina at the moment.

Still, it was really hard with all these standard limitations that being a Jounin Sensei came with nowadays. He had to cut at least 75 percent of his natural strength to make match with the fresh recruits' strength when they came out of the academy.

The next problem is the recruits' own sense of superiority. Just because they passed the test, they think they are all that. While entertaining to cut them down to size, his observations made it almost too hard to not humiliate them terribly.

Almost.

However, he really liked these guys, he really did! So he went the extra mile for them. He went and cut 10 more percent for these guys. 10 whole percent!

And they still couldn't beat him?

That was sad...he might as well resort to Plan B and see how that goes. I mean, his own teammates passed by this way, maybe they could?

He shrugged and continued reading his book, not really oblivious to the second assault that Sasuke should spring right...about...now!

He purposely tripped a wire and a handful of shuriken and kunai screamed toward him in an arc.

Kakashi mused, at least one of them used wire to control his metal strikes...still he remembered that from somewhere, he didn't have time to think about it as he had to go entertain Sasuke one more time...

Maybe he should show him a mole's view of the world?

Naruto was surprised when he saw Sakura in the clearing as he was sure Kakashi would have walked by any time now. His clone army was stashed everywhere they could hide, making it for a decent ambush.

"Naruto! Naruto, where are you!?" Sakura shouted, cupping her hands to her mouth, it looked like she was looking for him for some time now, so he had to stop her from tripping the wire trap that would leave her bound that was meant for an adult body, meaning that if she tripped it...

There would be a very good chance that she could be choked to death...that wasn't good.

"Sakura! Watch out!" Naruto shouted out, desperate to save his friend.

Sakura looked to the ground and sighed in relief. She almost fell for it...

"Thanks Naruto, you might've got me caught and you would've gotten a bell!" Sakura shouted back to Naruto's confusion before he paled in realization.

That wasn't Sakura!

The false Sakura smirked and she erupted in a cloud of smoke to reveal Kakashi with an eye smile in place.

He observed the hasty, but well camouflaged trap. He really didn't see it there for a moment, but would have spotted the trap with or without Naruto's shout.

He really did care for the girl, but he had to stay his hand and mouth in the future, as any smart ninja could do the same thing and ambush their enemy this way.

Still, there wasn't any danger for him, and to the shock of Naruto, he jumped into the trap and set it off, at least his original will have this information for future use, it really was a well made trap...

Naruto was shocked, to say the least. He inadvertently warned his teacher from setting off the trap, and he sets it off anyways?

His answer was further shocking as his teacher chuckled a bit before vanishing in a puff of smoke. It took him a moment before his eye-widening realization.

His teacher knew Kage Bunshin?

Naruto shook his head, of course he must've! He is a Jounin, he might've learned from that huge scroll as well!

A good thing that he didn't spring his Kage Bunshin on Kakashi, or his entire plan would've gone in smoke!

"Alright guys, lets move out!" He called out to the clearing.

A few minutes later, a sea of blue pants moved out following the original in search of the bells.

If they would've left a moment later, they would've met up with Sakura, who was still in search of Naruto...

Kakashi stood stock still in the middle of the field, getting bored with the wait. Reading the book is fine and all, but theres something...actually, no. The book is fine and dandy.

A sudden shift in the trees alerted him of the next attempt by his ninja-wannabe students.

A shout of what sounded like "Charge!" and it came.

A large army of Naruto clones were rushing toward a surprised Kakashi, who almost dropped his book in awe.

That many shadow clones would take the chakra of nearly 100 ninja and he was stuck against them all.

Well, it wasn't like he hadn't fought this many before, just replace clones with real people, and replace peace with war...

Kakashi shook his head, this wasn't the time and place for the past.

Looking with a nonchalant look, he stood to face the onslaught.

Maybe he should do this left handed...

Sakura finally backtracked to the main field in the training ground after spotting a mushroom cloud of smoke to the right of her eyesight.

Thinking that Naruto might've been there, she made her way there to see Sasuke watching a lot of copies of Naruto being destroyed by Kakashi, who was making a tiny-bit more effort than they did them.

It looked like they weren't trying to harm the man, but just dive to grab a bell on his beltline.

Sakura could tell that there were many possible battle plans that were much more effective than just this spectacle, but for all the new found tolerance and respect that she gave Naruto, he wasn't exactly what you call a military genius in strategy...

Maybe she could sneak by all that smoke and try and get a bell for herself?

Smiling a bit at her impromptu idea, she jumped down to the smoky floor, determined to get a bell...

Kakashi was just about to end it when he felt another chakra source, a source belonging to Sakura...

Hm...could this be a moment of opportunity? Or an actual attempt at teamwork?

Well, he was desperate to actually try and end this debacle, but he couldn't let them pass with such a poor attempt at teamwork.

He didn't need to do anything, of course. Time will do it for him, after all.

A shrill ringing pierced the area in Training Ground Seven that signaled the end of the test, and their subsequent failure to finish the test...

---

_Konoha 2000,_

_Training ground Seven: After the Test_

Kakashi couldn't decide who to wail on first.

Naruto, for his needless knuckleheaded rush tactics, which failed.

Sakura, who somewhat tried to find a teammate, but didn't use the most basic tracking techniques.

Or Sasuke...

Sasuke didn't seem to do anything in the terms of teamwork, just using opportunity after opportunity to strike at him without any regard to safety or wellbeing to his other teammates, who usually opened the way for him.

Now in front of a grumbling Naruto, a somber looking Sakura and scowling Sasuke, he had to pass judgment.

Will they pass...

or fail?

Of course, he was being a bit dramatic, but the test didn't really start yet. He had to milk it for all its worth though.

"Well, I hate to break it to you guys...but you failed, badly." Kakashi started. Taking a breath, he continued on.

"In all my years failing team after team, you guys were the worst. You showed no talent for for being serious ninja, and you don't seem ready at all to be even an academy student!" Kakashi put on a frown, it was true in what he said, but they needed to hear it as well as accept it.

Sakura put her head down, as if to block her teacher from seeing her cry. Naruto looked away and Sasuke put on a full blown glare, as if his words were meant for someone else.

Kakashi shook his head, and proceeded with his real test. He was going the extra mile for these guys, as this was usually the hopefuls' normal stop.

"I'll give you another chance, but this time-" Kakashi paused as he rushed toward Sakura, who hadn't raised her head and surprised her by taking her farther from the two surprised boys to another clearing, with the two boys close behind.

When Sasuke and Naruto got there, they saw Sakura tied to a tree with a narrow eyed Kakashi staring toward them, a Kunai knife near the frightened girl's neck.

"Your test is this..." He pulled something from behind the tree and tossed it in front of the boys. It turned out to be a lunch box.

"This box was to be your reward for completing my test, but since you failed...this box has become your last chance." Kakashi said, with his eye closed and his free hand stroking his chin.

"I had only two bells for a reason. It means that only two of you are to pass my test and become real ninja, while the other goes back to the academy, or become a civilian, I don't care." Kakashi looked at the fallen box and gestured with his free hand to pick it up.

"Your objective is this: Whoever gets this lunch box to Sakura first, is the winner. The loser, well you know what happens." Kakashi smiled with a narrowed eye, as if sneering at them.

"Go!" Kakashi shouted and saw the two boys scramble for the box and race to a terrified Sakura, who looked like she was about to cry.

She was said to come from a civilian family, she didn't know about the hardships of life, but normal children, civilian or clan, shouldn't know either. Of course she would be scared, the academy doesn't gear you for the dark times that occur so often in ninja life.

It should really, but Konoha was trying to define the ninja to be human as well as assassins. It was a generally unaccepted method of definition, both by foreign and local ninja.

It all started with his teacher, who slowly brought the seed that would later become today's Konoha to light during his short reign as village leader.

He wholeheartedly supported the idea, seeing his own father die by the old ideology, and then the war...

Focus! He can't think about that, this wasn't the time.

Looking toward the boys, he wasn't surprised that Sasuke was walking toward Sakura with the box in his hand while Naruto was groaning on the floor, clutching his stomach in pain.

While the Uchiha were renowned for their bravado with their full confidence in their sharingan eyes, they were also really powerful from the get go, having numerous prodigies become ninja that served the Konoha forces loyally. Sasuke, the damned scion from the destroyed clan, seemed to be blessed with high combat ability and learning as well.

Naruto was an enigma as well, he showed great prowess during the test in the early stages, and then he disappeared. When he reappeared, he tried a mass rush that worked against him, and it made him look extremely weak.

He was expecting to see that _form_ that he donned that night. When he saved the Hokage and much of the ninja force against that traitor. He used a power not felt since his teacher was alive, but in a more visual way, with the complete change in attire and use of an arm cannon that shouldn't be possible.

It left him thinking, was it a bloodline?

Or was it something else entirely?

He watched Sasuke come up to him, the box held in front of Sakura, who was shocked at seeing the act of malice from a boy regarded of many things, most of them positive.

"Kakashi-sensei, I have the box. That means I win." Sasuke said, a bit proud that he got the last spot as the student of this Kakashi. Kakashi, for some reason, got a bit angry at him.

He sighed.

"Looks like you got it, but you didn't seem to get it, so you fai-"Kakashi was interrupted by Sasuke.

"Now, Naruto!" He shouted suddenly, as he looked toward the fallen Naruto. Kakashi looked toward the still body, startled by the shout and putting his attention toward the boy.

Kakashi was surprised when a force hitting him from the side made him stumble and fall. He looked to see Naruto tackling him to the ground while Sasuke was cutting the ropes that were tying Sakura.

Realization hit him, and he was happy for it.

They tricked him, and they did some fancy teamwork to do so.

Well, they passed in his book...but...

He just couldn't resist a bit more drama.

Quickly grabbing Naruto and throwing him surprisingly hard toward Sasuke, who pushed Sakura out of the way and took Naruto's flailing body to his own at full force, Kakashi approached the fallen students with a harsh glare, with dark skies and everything.

"You...have no idea what you did right now..." Kakashi thundered, raising his hands and magically calling thunder to clap overhead. Sakura was looking at him wide-eyed and Sasuke and Naruto were trying to find a weakness in that pressurized glare that Kakashi was giving them.

"You have left me no choice! You have...!" Kakashi roared, as the thunder violently rumbled. Sakura was shaking now and Naruto was trying to not pass out as the pressure intensified. Sasuke didn't seem to be affected anymore than before though.

"Passed!" Kakashi said with a bright eye-smile and the dark skies instantly cleared up, with chirping birds in the distance. It was almost as if the thing was an illusion, which given hindsight, many, many years later during a quiet drink, probably was.

"Wh-what?" Sakura asked quietly, as if not believing what she just heard. Naruto's eyes widened almost comically and Sasuke didn't have a form of glare, sneer or all around negative look in his eyes for once. He almost looked as handsome as they said he would be, if not for the lack of desirable personality.

"I said, that as of now, Team Seven has passed and become official Ninjas of Konohagakure." Kakashi said with a jovial tone, as if excited that this team was the first to be worthy of training by him.

Naruto looked dazed and started to cheer loudly, grabbing Sakura's hands as they danced around in victory. Sasuke merely closed his eyes and sighed, as this was a harsh ordeal that only he could've got them out of.

Cocky bastard, Kakashi thought. He was so eerily similar it was like looking into his own reflection.

After the standard rules and regulations that Kakashi had to tell any passing team, he dismissed them and told them to report in front of the administration building to accept their share of missions as the brand new Team Seven.

After waving goodbye to a joyous Naruto and Sakura, Kakashi disappeared in a blur of wind and leaves, presumably to report in their success and induction into the Ninja Forces.

Naruto tried again to have a group outing, and was surprised that they accepted. They went to a restaurant that Sakura had suggested and both agreed, with the victory fresh in their minds, it felt like nothing could stop Team Seven!

* * *

_Konoha 2000_

_Hokage Tower: Hokage's Office_

"...and that concludes the induction meeting. Congratulations on passing your teams and good luck." The Third Hokage said with a smile, but inside he was disappointed that Kakashi had failed yet again another team without a care in the world, as he had done so in the past.

Both of his teammates and advisors from his own team, Koharu and Homura, were forced to attend the induction process as the Hokage's aides and witnesses for some bureaucratic thing the Civilian portion of their government brought into circulation and each had to sign it to prove that they were there before it was accepted by the civilians for god knows what reason.

When it first began with a simple paper form to push Kunai and Shuriken production to be faster than previous methods, the Bureaucratic process was something of a godsend by the Civilian population to the Hokage of the time, which was the first Hokage.

Then it came like an avalanche in snow country...

Paper for this...

Paper for that...

Soon the dreamlike fantasy that was the Bureaucratic process turned into the hateful demon damned by all Kages today.

Ahem...

Still, he was hoping for Kakashi to wake up from the past and face the present and move on.

Just as he was about to dismiss his aides, Kakashi came in, looking rather happy for some reason.

"Ah, Kakashi, I'm glad to see you made it, even if it was the end of it." The Hokage said to still smiling Kakashi...at least he thought he was smiling.

"Well Hokage-sama, I've come to let you know that I passed my team and that Team Seven is ready for active duty."

A stunned silence filled the room. The Hokage, his advisors, not even the hidden Anbu that were protecting the Hokage moved an inch (well they weren't supposed to anyways)...

Kakashi, Kakashi Hatake, who was known to outright fail his teams before...had passed a team.

Of course, just as the Hokage was to turn in for the day, this had to happen...what next? One of his students comes to kill him now? Tsunade comes up and becomes Hokage? Jiraiya comes to town and saves Konoha?

The Hokage sighed.

"Well now...thats all good and all, but you missed the deadline." Homura started, but trailed off to Koharu, who was more assertive in speaking.

"The passing teams already reported in, Kakashi." She broke the news to a stunned Kakashi, who was getting the feeling that this was very, very awkward now.

And it was.

The Hokage started to think, this could become disastrous if something should go wrong.

This is the first team that "woke up" Kakashi from being stuck in the past.

However, he didn't make the original limitations for the team fill-up...

This was a rare opportunity, and this could make Kakashi more and more confident in passing future teams...

The Hokage stood up, putting an end to the tension between the faltering Kakashi and the stern looks of his teammates, who were by the book a little too much and grabbed a book from his bookshelf.

He flipped through several pages and stopped at a certain article of the book and read it silently. His two aides looked over and saw where he stopped and nodded at his plans.

Finally, the Hokage looked toward a still Kakashi and passed his ruling.

"Kakashi, we can't add your team to the limit for the years rookies." The Hokage began to a serious looking Kakashi, who for the first time looked mad at his tardiness.

"However, we can add you to the Active Reserves Corps."

"The Active Reserves Corps?" Kakashi asked, to which the Hokage nodded.

"The Active Reserves Corps, or ARC for short was established in the case where four or more teams made the cut despite the limit of only three teams. Normally, that wouldn't be the case and we could just add an extra team and move on, but..." The Hokage paused and stood up to put the book back in the shelf before continuing on.

"A long time ago, around the time of Third Secret War, spies have infiltrated our tower and got hold of our genin rosters, which sparked the said war later on with the slaughter of the teams mentioned in the rosters."

The Hokage paused and lit his favorite pipe, before continuing.

"So the council and the head of Anbu at the time came up with ARC, in order to fool enemy spies into having less and less information on our actual genin count."

"But how did that help, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi questioned, seeing no real benefits to it except for miscounts in Genin production.

The Hokage chuckled.

"I thought that too, but it allowed us to give more and more Jounin to be sensei to more Genin who were exceptionally skilled but were either not good enough the first time around or were, being held back by an unworthy student. It just so happened that the Fourth Hokage was part of ARC with his team, and you know what happened with him."

"Which now brings us to this, since ARC wasn't implemented in a long time, you will become the first team to be part of the ARC program in some time now."

The Hokage stood up and put his hands behind his back, a gesture seen when he does an important decision.

"Since ARC was formed, each team was renamed from their respective number to ARC and a number. Since there is only one team in ARC right now, you and your team are now designated as Team ARC. You will receive missions directly under me when the rank for missions exceed C rank and above. You may take D rank missions as any normal team however."

The Hokage finished and sat down, apparently talking and balancing his pipe with his mouth was more strenuous than first seemed, but he was old for a Kage...

"You are dismissed Kakashi, we expect your team tomorrow morning, on time." Homura added and turned away when Kakashi left the office.

"You know Hokage-sama...that wasn't what ARC was used for..." He said quietly. The Hokage nodded, as if admitting the fact that he lied.

"I know Homura, but I believe that they are most suited for this type of work."

Koharu sighed.

"Is it because of that boy?" She asked.

"Mostly, but they seem to resonate something similar to Naruto, perhaps they are meant to be more than just Ninja...but I digress." The Hokage ended the conversation on that note and looked for any paperwork that he might've missed.

Time will tell, as he was told so many times during such talks. He couldn't agree more.

Time will certainly tell for this group of genin.

**Well this is part two of the "Tests and Teams" arc that I planned, and its time to kick into high gear the next time around with more adventures for the newly dubbed Team ARC.**

**They are officially known as Team ARC, but that doesn't mean that the moniker Team Seven is gone, not by a long shot.**

**Well, I'll try and give them an adventure away from the classic wave arc, as I felt that it was a turning point mission than an actual standard mission that just erupted into a long arc by chance.**

**I'm also in the market for suggestions on who to give what powers to each character. They will help me try and build a mission or "stage" for Naruto and company to try and tackle the foe causing the trouble.**

**So, what I'm looking for is this:**

**From the Beginning of Team Seven to the eve before the first test of the Chunin Exams, I want you to give people that best resonate with these bosses.**

**Elecman**

**Bombman**

**Iceman**

**Cutman**

**Fireman**

**Flameman was ousted on the basis that since Mizuki returns to do battle with Naruto again, a future level boss was needed for him, as he was originally slated to be Fireman in my mind.**

**So, I leave it up to you and please tell me along with a review.**

**Laters,**

**Terra Ace**


End file.
